Exactly 16 months after Hale Library caught fire, K-State’s dean of libraries Lori Goetsch walked not through rubble, but between plastic-covered chairs, tables and other library equipment on the library’s first floor Tuesday morning.
K-State Library (via Instagram)
The May 2018 fire led to smoke and water damage that destroyed 85% of the library’s interior. Although the library had just been weeks away from renovating the first floor, the damage ballooned the library’s renovation plans to include the whole place.
After $7 million in donations and $58 million from the university’s insurance policies so far, the library plans to open Hale’s first floor to students on Wednesday, just missing the first day of K-State’s fall semester.
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area.
He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit.
Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.
