Back to the Books…Newly Renovated Library Open for Business

January 27, 2011 at 12:23 am

After nearly a year of construction, students on Bannatyne Campus are being welcomed by Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library staff to an impressive modern, practical and inviting library. From new lounge chairs to café style seating to small seminar rooms, students have an array of options of where to study, read, conduct research, and gather for small group learning.

The 300 level of the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library officially opened a few weeks ago with a grand opening planned for spring. Students are already populating the carrels and bright study areas and taking advantage of the nearly 70 additional study spaces now available.

The new library -now boasting 223 study spaces- is a much larger and better-designed “health information place.” Approximately 9,000 square feet of space was added on to the upper floor with construction of the new wing. The Aboriginal Health Collection and the Faculty of Medicine Archives have also been transformed. Find out more about how you can contribute to, or access, our Medical Archives, by contacting Medical archivist Jordan Bass.

The Health Sciences Library’s completely redesigned 300 level also offers comfortable new furniture and ample study space, 12 high-tech seminar rooms, a large boardroom, and wheelchair-accessible public washrooms.

The seminar rooms are equipped with 46-inch touch screen monitors and will be available for booking as of Feb. 2, 2011 through the Circulation Desk in the NJM Library. Students can also sign out AV packages to connect their laptops to the screens, wireless keyboards and mice, and white board markers and erasers for use on the floor to ceiling whiteboard walls in the small seminar rooms.

You’ll notice as well that the main floor of the library is brighter and more accommodating, with upgraded workstations and computer labs, new offices for staff, and a redesigned work area for Circulation and Document Delivery.

View pictures of the library and construction scenes from the past year here.

The $2.7 million library expansion was made possible thanks to $1.37-million funding from the federal government’s Knowledge Infrastructure Program and a successful fundraising campaign by the University of Manitoba.

What do you think of the newly expanded NJM Library?