Not only were we busy in the library this summer trying to come up with a sensible, practical plan for this strange school year, we were busy with a new construction project on our second floor – the new Collaborative Learning Space! This space, the brain child of Dean Smith, has been in the works for awhile, so fortunately we completed much of the planning for this project in advance. There is some irony in building a “collaborative” space during this time of physical distancing, but it gives us something to look forward to for the future (and more space to spread out)!
For us, the most difficult part of the project was sending thousands of bound legal periodicals (mostly law reviews) to the wood chipper to be turned into mulch (see photo below). Library employees spent decades building this collection, and it was sad to see it go. We kept a few of the periodicals, moving them to another location in the library, and we have the excellent HeinOnline and other databases to help you locate digital copies of law review articles.
When this project is finished, we anticipate that the BYU Law School community will be very pleased with the results! The new collaborative space will be large, flat, and complete with movable furniture and whiteboards offering many configuration options for classes, design clinics, group projects, and even study space. We will have to deal with some construction noise for a little bit longer, but the results should be worth it!
