By SHANNA GHAZNAVI
The changes occurring in the Harold B. Lee Library will ultimately allow all library users to acquire information more conveniently and quickly.
Periodicals Librarian Michael A. Beier said current and future projects are designed to make students' research easier. These projects include a new room and a new system for locating periodicals, a reclassification of books by subject, a transfer of all the information from card catalogs to computer and a merging of the LAN and Gateway infobases.
The plans call for compact shelving, skylights and large windows along the back wall facing the ASB. The new periodicals room will be on the second floor of the new wing, which is scheduled to be completed in 2000, he said.
One of the greatest advantages of the new periodical room is that current issues of magazines, and bound and stored periodicals will now be in the same room.
'It should make it much more convenient for a student who has a call number to go to that one location and be sure that what they want will be there,' Beier said. 'If we have it, it's going to be there.'
There will also be subject specialists available to help the students. In addition, the staff will be increased to better assist the students.
Beier said his main goals for the new library services are that both space and convenience needs for the library be met for at least 15 years into the future. With the library becoming more specialized and organized, it should become more user-friendly, Beier said.
Of the other changes, Beier said, 'We basically have two programs going on right now. We're changing the old Dewey Decimal System into Library of Congress call numbers. We're also doing a `recon' project, which means we're taking everything that's in the card catalogs and making sure that it's on the computer catalog.'
For students, that means research should become easier. At the moment, books of the same subject are kept in different sections of the library, depending on whether they are classified under the Dewey system or the Library of Congress system.
By classifying books according to the Library of Congress call numbers, all books of the same subject will be in the same area and students will have less running around to do, Beier said.
By merging the LAN and Gateway infobases, he said the library hopes to decrease the time students have to wait to use a computer. The LAN and Gateway infobases have been accessible from all the library's computers since the beginning of the Winter semester. Beier said he believed wait time has already been greatly reduced.
Beier also said card catalogs will soon become obsolete. The process of transferring information from the cards to the computer is already underway, and within the next two years all information should be on computer, Beier said.
While the construction may not be convenient, better service will result, he said.