Truxal Final Paper

Front View of the Andrew G. Truxal Library

Students and faculty at Anne Arundel Community College can now enjoy the new and improved Andrew G. Truxal Library.

          

 “The new library is wonderful,” said Cynthia Steinhoff, director of the library. “The renovation provides so much more study space and more computers for the students.”     

In the fall of last year the area that once stood the old library was a mound of dirt, crammed with construction vehicles and equipment. The students in the math building, that’s sits right next to the library, could feel the foundation vibrate from the neighboring construction site.

The library was ready for students and faculty for the start of the fall semester on Aug. 27. The once crowded library with little amount of computers is now a relaxing study space full with new features to aid the students in their academics.

The cost of the project totaled to $19.6 million. The building process was under the charge of the Hess Construction and engineering services. At the completion of the project the construction was $2 million under budget, but it is not certain where the savings have gone, Steinhoff said.

“What I like is that we installed several more electrical outlets, which the old library didn’t have,” said Steinhoff.

The old library, built in 1967, was a restricted space with not enough computers for the students to do their studies, but many of those features have doubled in capacity without taking up needed sitting and study space.

The library is now home to 224 computers for students and faculty to use, which is a 72 percent increase from the old facility. The first floor is home to a 134 seat technology learning center where students can study, have tutoring, or finish a research paper.

 “I liked it before, but I like it even better now,” said Phil Morrison, a math tutor at AACC. “It looks a lot better and it seems to work a lot better.”

Morrison has been a math tutor at AACC for two years and believes that the old building wasn’t as bad, but the renovations have made it even better.

The 20 enclosed silent group study rooms located on the second and third floor are furnished with seating for five to six people, equipped with 42 inch TV and computer screens and extra outlets for laptops and flash drives.

Students that don’t need to study can enjoy and relax in their spare time in the library as well. Students can grab a movie from the library DVD section or take a nap by the fireplace on the second floor.

“I think it’s really nice” said BrittanyBiermann. “It’s a good place for me to study and do my homework.”

Biermann, 18, is a freshman at AACC and is majoring in transfer studies. This Broadneck alumnus spends three days a week in the library doing her homework and studying. Biermann thoughts on the library can be seen in a video on Facebook.

In the old library the area was cramped and many of the reference shelves had to be moved and reorganize to house the needed materials and still give the students room to study.

Now with about 19,600 linear feet of shelving the reference section has plenty of room for more text books and reading material, but books are not the only place to get reference material at the library. The library has its own onlinedatabases with all the materials available at the library.

The library even has its own Facebook page to provide notifications on new books and updates to on campus activities.

The hopes for the future are to still provide a relaxing study space with plenty of reference material and computers for the students and faculty, Steinhoff said.