K-State’s Hale Library making progress two years after fire

MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNT) – Lori Goetsch has spent the last 16 years as dean of the K-State Libraries. It may have just been two years ago, but she vividly remembers the day a fire brought Hale Library to its knees.

“I was out of town at the time, interestingly enough I was in Fort Worth, Texas,” she said. “I got a K-State Alert on my phone that said there was a fire at Hale Library, I got on my phone and immediately called my building supervisor, and we were on the phone for hours.”

Goetsch talked about the progress being made on the Hale Library Project.

“It has been a great experience we have wonderful contractors that we are working with, architects and interior designers,” Goetsch said. “I feel a little but like I have had to learn how to be each of those things in a small way, you know, I have to learn a little bit about what its like to be a contractor, little bit what its like to be an architect and an interior designer. But it really showed me what kind of a team it takes to put together a project like this.”

The dean also mentioned the major improvements to make the library a better place.

“I think one of the other exciting things is that we have been working with our information and technology colleagues to have a shared service point in the library so that when, students come back there will be one point of help so that if students need library help or I.T. help,” Goetsch said. “We are also opening up a large instruction room space so that we can accommodate large classes coming into the library to provide library instruction to those students.”

You can find more information about Hale Library by clicking here.