Fraser Library (pictured above) will serve the student community until the renovation of Milne Library is completed. Milne is anticipated to be finished with construction by 2025. (Photo editor/Kate Rodgers)
The remodeling of Fraser Library has been completed, and the space will now serve as the campus community while Milne Library is under construction. The Fraser Hall Library is now offering all of the services that the Milne previously offered.
The library has been open since Dec. 18 with only necessary services, such as textbook loans but is now fully renovated and operational.
According to the Geneseo website, Milne Library has been closed since February 2020 due to the presence of asbestos particles in the air. Though the levels of asbestos were deemed unharmful, the college plans to move forward with a $35 million renovation and remediation project to remove the asbestos. The project is expected to be completed in time for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Library Director Corey Ha said the Fraser Hall Library will offer research and writing assistance as well as a quiet study space and computer lab. The CIT HelpDesk is available to help students and staff with general computer questions and services such as printing and downloading academic software.
"We really try to provide the same quality and level of services and resources [in Fraser Hall],” Ha said. “We try to do as much as we could given the limitations of the size and with everything else going on.”
The Fraser Hall Library is also one of the several public study spaces that is now open around campus.
On March 1, the Office of the President announced via a campus-wide email that some individual study spaces in academic buildings would be made available. On March 8, the office reported that larger study spaces in academic buildings would reopen, allowing students to study together in groups for the first time this semester.
In the emails, the college said that the decision to reopen study spaces was motivated by the continual decrease in active COVID-19 cases on campus, input from students, and the commitment shown by Geneseo students to adhering to COVID-19 guidelines.
The opening of public study rooms on campus is a welcome change in policy for many students.
“My dorm is just my bedroom, and I’ve never been good at doing things there because I get distracted or go on my phone. Going somewhere like the Union or the new library makes me focus because everyone around me is doing work too,” biology major freshman Kelly Heathscott said.