The top three floors of the Glickman Library in Portland were officially opened to the public last Friday, to much pomp and fanfare. Free pizza was snapped up by voracious guests almost before it was set out.
University officials, including President Pattenaude and the chairs of the faculty, classified and student senates, spoke at the podium in the new function room on the seventh floor.
“The library used to be a dark place full of dusty books. Now it’s filled with tables and computers, the new tools of education,” Student Senate Chair Jeremy Colette said. Craig Hutchinson, Vice President of student affairs invited students to “come through these doors often.” David Nutty, Director of USM’s Libraries said “the library belongs to all departments, students, and programs. It is a shared intellectual resource.”
Other new facilities include a stone-floored cafeteria and a computer-equipped classrom on the fifth floor; a “special collections” department and small computer lab on the sixth floor; and a luxuriously appointed reading room on the seventh floor. The second floor has been drastically reorganized: its book stacks have been moved to the new floors and the now-sunny space has been replaced with waist-height shelving and computer stations.