Lowry Hall and Mundt Library Making Moves for MadLabs This Summer

By President, Jose-Marie Griffiths, Ph.D., President's DSUpdate, Special Edition, May 17, 2017, courtesy of Dakota State University

This summer the occupants of Lowry Hall and the Mundt Library will get to know each other better as we begin preparations for the new MadLabs facility, beginning with Lowry Hall residents moving out of their present offices, most to a new home in the Mundt Library.

As previously reported in the DSUpdate, DSU hired the architectural firm JLG to assess the best campus location for the new building for MadLabs. Their recommendation was the present site of Lowry Hall. DSU agreed with the recommendation, and the Board of Regents has approved DSU moving forward with the necessary demolition of Lowry Hall, including the Help Desk wing, to make room for the construction of the new MadLabs facility. We are presently planning that Lowry Hall will be demolished over this summer, such that we can begin pre-construction by this fall, 2017, for the new MadLabs building.

The occupants of Lowry Hall will move out of that building. DSU’s Information Technology Services (ITS), Help Desk, and K-12 Data Center staff will be moving into the Mundt Library. Other occupants of Lowry Hall will be moved to other locations around campus.

The Mundt Library staff have already been considering new arrangements of space and resources to better serve our community, as all university endeavors become ever more hyper-connected and technology-based. These moves provide a serendipitous opportunity to now assess and implement some of those desired changes. They will also facilitate additional conversations between ITS and library leadership and staff as to how we can integrate and enhance our support of students and faculty across all information-seeking and processing activities.

It will take some time to develop a plan and then complete the necessary renovations to create the best layout in the Mundt Library to facilitate effective delivery of the services housed in the building. We will, therefore, likely have some interim layouts this summer that may make certain parts of the Library inaccessible for a time. In addition, we recognize that all of this will likely result in greater activity and noise, which may be an inconvenience for those using the library spaces or resources. We apologize in advance for this disruption. As plans evolve, we will provide additional information to keep you informed. We ask for your patience as we move through this process.

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