Trustees approve several motions in meeting

After just two weeks of classes, many students are already beginning to feel the frustration of overcrowding at the Main Library Information Commons Loft.\nOn Thursday, The IU board of trustees voted in favor of a proposal to renovate the Information Commons Loft on the second floor of the west tower.\nThe project is estimated to cost $690,000 and is funded by the Libraries and University Information Technology Services and Capital Projects/Land Acquisitions Reserves. \nThe construction to the IC should be underway in the near future.\n"We have the intention to start before the end of this semester," said Bob Meadows, University architect. "We should be done by the end of the spring semester of this year."\nThe IC is a center located in the Main Library west tower where students have the opportunity to study 24 hours a day, seven days a week. \nThe IUB Libraries Web site states that the IU-Bloomington libraries are some of the leading academic research library systems in North America, providing strong collections, quality service and instructional programs and leadership in the application of informational technologies.\nVast arrays of technological services are offered in this tower of the library. Currently the tower houses more than 250 workstations, wireless networks for personal computers and group workstations configured for two to five people to collaborate.\nA $1.5 million project began in 2003 to help aid the high-traffic first floor of the Main Library's west tower.\nBut library employees felt the project was not enough to accommodate the growing demand of student needs.\nA new proposal, passed Thursday, will target the addition of electrical, voice and data connections and new furniture to accommodate over 180 individual workstations.\nFred Eichhorn, president of the board of trustees, is anticipating the IC renovations, which will be almost double the space of the current west tower.\n"I am happy about the success of the first venture," Eichhorn said. "But this renovation will be more responsive to the students needs."\n-- Contact staff writer Kristin Huett at khuett@indiana.edu .