by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
The reopening of Zimmerman Library on Monday brought a smile to the face of UNM student Rose Ebaugh.
She'd been struggling to find places to use computers for the past two months, until the first floor of the library was opened after an April 30 fire torched the basement and damaged thousands of square feet of property.
"I'm very happy because I don't have a laptop at home," Ebaugh said. "For me, it (the closure) was detrimental because it was before finals. I had to find four or five different places to go use a computer or borrow a friend's laptop."
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The second and third floors are expected to open around July 10, while the basement won't be opened until late spring, said Joel Straquadine, facilities manager for the Physical Plant.
Insurance will cover the cost of installing sprinklers in the basement and first floor for around $1 million during the reconstruction phase, he said. The bottom two floors compose 55 percent of the library, he said.
Other than a 1993 addition, library did not have sprinklers when the fire broke out.
The state Fire Marshal's Office will likely request an upgrade to sprinklers for the entire building, Straquadine said. That phase of the reconstruction would take no longer than five years and would be done sections at a time, he said. Straquadine didn't have a price estimate, but he said the building is 240,000 square feet.
Although people didn't form a line down the Smith Plaza steps for the reopening of the library, there was a decent stream of people going in and out of the building during its first day, said Johann van Reenen, assistant dean for research and instruction of University Libraries.
"We don't have a rush of people. A lot of people went obviously to Starbucks," he said. "People are satisfied with it as far as we can tell."
One of those satisfied people was visiting scholar Hyong-In Kim, who graduated with a doctorate from UNM's history department 15 years ago. She came to UNM from South Korea two weeks ago to do research on an intercultural project between the United States and Korea.
Kim said she heard about the library fire after scheduling her trip here and was worried she wouldn't have access to any of the library's research materials.
"When I came, yes, I was distressed," she said. "But then I came, and there was a sign that said I could use another library for my research, so it was OK."
Among the materials that couldn't be salvaged were journals and articles in ethnic studies, history and anthropology.
Ebaugh said the ethnic studies articles are of particular importance to her. Without those, it was hard for her to do research for classes because some of it isn't available online.
"Some of the Native American studies stuff was burned, and that affects me because I do a lot of research in Native American studies," she said. "I don't know if you can replace that. It's kind of a loss if we don't have an important article or artifact that we need to make the University unique."
Almost 80 percent of journals are available within 24 hours through Zimmerman's interlibrary loan system, Rapid, which sends the requested article from a journal through e-mail, van Reenen said.
The west portion of the first floor is opened, including the reference and circulation desks, the Willard Reading Room and the Center for Southwest Research, which houses 20 computers that were undamaged.
The state Fire Marshal's Office hasn't concluded its arson investigation and won't for another couple of months, Straquadine said.
"He's being very tight-lipped," Straquadine said. "They really do a thorough job before they say anything."
Anyone who wants to make monetary donations can call Patricia Brkich at 277-1267. The library hasn't set up a process for donating materials yet, but anyone interested in those donations can contact Linda Lewis at 277-7828.
