The staff of the Hilton C. Buley Library and Southern’s students were settled comfortably into a bright, modern new building when the new fall semester began. But that’s only half the story.

The academic heart of campus, Buley Library is in the process of growing to double its size and hardly missing a beat in the process. A two-phase, $63.7 million project to expand and renovate the 38-year-old library is about 50 percent complete. A new 135,000-square-foot, five-story addition opened in May, and, by the first weeks of summer, housed most of the library’s collections and services. The next phase of the project, the renovation of the original 98,000-square-foot building, is now underway, with completion scheduled by 2010. When the entire project is done, the new Buley will offer work areas and furnishings for up to 1,600 students, a four-fold increase. The expansion and renovation will greatly increase the library’s holding capacity for books, journals, data-bases, and other media. For example, the library will have the potential to accommodate 765,000 volumes of books alone, an increase from about 460,000.

The renovation and expansion also will greatly enhance the library’s technical resources and opportunities for learning, instruction, and research. Wireless Internet connectivity is available throughout the building, and the expansion brings with it a state-of-the-art bibliographic instruction classroom. Buley also is home to the School of Communication, Information, and Library Science, and the Department of Academic Computing, which provides computer and technology support across campus.

While construction continues, students began enjoying some of the amenities of the new addition this spring, utilizing a temporary entrance located near the student center. “This addition is so much more aesthetically pleasing to the employees and students,” says Dr. Christina Baum, library director.

he new addition has a red brick facade and covers a large, roughly half-moon footprint behind the original rectangle-shaped building. Large windows pour natural light into comfortably furnished reading areas that open upwards to two stories, offering sweeping views of West Rock.

The addition of private group study rooms is one of the project’s key features and a hallmark of student life at a modern university. The inviting, glass-enclosed rooms have large white boards, tables, and comfortable chairs. “The students come here to do research, to meet with friends, and to do group study,” Baum says. “We did not have any group study rooms at all in the old building.”

While the students are already capitalizing on the enhancements offered in the new building, there is much more in store. “Many things in the new building are in their permanent places already,” says Baum. “But other services will be relocated into the renovated building when it is finished.”

When the project is complete, spiral staircases and an atrium will link the addition and the renovated building. The permanent main entrance will once again face the academic quad, the traditional backdrop for commencement and other ceremonies. Services currently in temporary locations, such as administrative offices, will be relocated across the entire expanse of both buildings. Only then will students, faculty, and staff be able to appreciate the full impact of the expansion, says Baum. “The arrangement of services will make more sense based on how we work and serve the students,” she says.

Baum began working at Southern in the fall of 2007, midway through the construction project. She oversees a staff of 35 people who, she is confident, will continue to do what they have done so masterfully since 2004 — operate a full-service university library while also accommodating construction workers, engineers, architects, and movers.

The library expansion, which began in 2004, marks the third and final phase of a state-funded facilities improvement project that also saw the expansion and renovation of Engleman Hall, the construction of the Michael J. Adanti Student Center, and the building of a new Energy Center. Looking forward, the transformation of campus will continue with the state Bond Commission’s approval of the CSUS 2020 capital improvement program.

“It’s a very exciting time for Southern, and the best is yet to come,” says Robert Sheeley, associate vice president for capital budgeting and facilities operations.