The first thing you notice when stepping into Central Library’s new fourth-floor lobby is a sense of light and space. Gone is the dark, cluttered entryway that more than one student described as “cave-like” on user surveys last year, replaced by more room, new flooring and natural light.
“I’ve been asked by several people how we raised the ceilings,” said Dean of Libraries Connie Vinita Dowell, who assures that no such thing has happened. “It’s actually just new lighting and paint. We did open up some spaces, which makes it feel grander.”
The next thing that grabs your attention is a collage of seemingly unrelated words being projected from the ceiling onto the lobby’s floor. This projection represents real-time searches of the library’s electronic catalogs.