After two years of construction and an even longer planning process, Hayden Library turned to a new page after it opened for the spring semester.
The newly renovated library is open to students and faculty for 24 hours a day on weekdays and closes earlier on weekends. After 10 p.m., visitors must bring their Sun Card in order to enter the library.
Jennifer Duvernay, an associate University librarian for communications and donor relations, said one reason for the renovation was to increase space.
“(The old Hayden building) wasn’t as efficiently laid out as it could be including the infrastructure," Duvernay said.
The library now consists of six floors that hold more space for ASU community members to utilize, some of which are completely new.
“It wasn’t a matter of turning away from the traditional library of the past," Duvernay said. However, she said the renovations reflect modern technologies as well as honoring old ones.
Each floor holds creative and collaborative spaces for the ASU community such as innovative centers, archives and study spaces.
READ MORE: A student's guide to the renovated Hayden Library
Brittany Lewis, a communications specialist at the ASU Library, said these spaces offer resources to advance career and academic success.
Lewis added that that the new library "provides greater accessibility to the resources and experts that college students want to get connected with."
Lewis said the third floor of the library features something well known to ASU: innovation.
The third floor serves as an innovation hub for the library with three key centers. These centers include a makerspace and a map and geospatial hub.
READ MORE: Will the $90 million Hayden Library renovation boost ASU innovation?
“We are trying to offer this to the ASU community so that they can advance their research," Lewis said. “I think that is the new direction for an academic library, and Hayden Library is really trying to harness that.”
In addition to innovation, ASU's newly renovated library celebrates tradition and culture by establishing collections such as the Labriola National American Indian Data Center and Southwestern-focused Distinctive Collections, which showcases rare books and manuscripts.
For some ASU students, the opening of Hayden Library is their first-ever experience with the building unaccompanied by the sights and sounds of construction.
Elizabeth Sweeten, a sophomore studying mathematics, said Hayden's reopening is a relief to both her school routine and her ears.
"It was annoying hearing construction every day," Sweeten said.
Sweeten said she visited Noble Library, which she said was too crowded, very frequently during her freshman year.
"I feel like with the extra space people will have more places to go to," she said.
Library officials hope the re-opening of the building will allow more people to enjoy the building.
"We are so pleased to be able to now have two entrances at the ground level to enhance our accessibility to the entire community," Duvernay said.
The library features gender-inclusive bathrooms and two new wheelchair entrances.
Duvernay said it is important to make Hayden Library available to all members of the University.
"I felt like for a library, Hayden has been the physical center of campus," Duvernay said. "The library should really be the heart of the community."
Reach the reporter at anatar12@asu.edu or follow @AnushaNat1 on Twitter.
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