The third floor of Davis Library reopened Wednesday morning after nearly four months of construction.
The closure was due to the Davis Library Infrastructure Project – an initiative that began in June 2017 to install fire sprinklers throughout Davis Library. The project has upgraded the public address (PA) system for emergency announcements as well.
“I think it’s good (the third floor is open again),” sophomore Daniel Kim said. “I like how it’s quiet now because a lot of people don’t know (that it has reopened). But I think it’d be nice if they updated it like the did with the eighth floor.”
The eighth floor of Davis closed for approximately three months beginning in December 2017 for the infrastructure project. However, as part of an initiative led by Elaine Westbrooks, the newest university librarian appointed in August 2017, the eighth floor was recently remodeled. The update includes new furniture, carpeting and new additions to group study rooms and study alcoves.
“The furniture has been coming in over the last couple of months, but starting last week, we’ve been adding these glass fronts to the study alcoves and also to the closed group study rooms,” said Judith Panitch, UNC director of Library Communications. “Study rooms are already key pass-carded, and you can reserve them online. The alcoves, we’re also going to add swipe cards to them just so students can feel a little more comfortable, but they’re not reservable.”
Although she just recently began studying on the eighth floor, junior Victoria Netkovick is already enjoying the update.
“I actually had never been on the eighth floor before until my friend showed me like a week ago, and now it's the only place I go,” Netkovick said. “I didn’t know this furniture was here until like last week. I like the set-up and the new furniture is just so nice. You can just spread out.”
There is no current plan in place to update the interior on any other floor at this time, Panitch said.
The final phase of the Davis Library Infrastructure Project is to install fire sprinklers in the basement. But Panitch believes this will not affect students as much as previous construction.
