{"id":32603,"date":"2013-11-19T14:49:42","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T20:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=32603"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:27:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:27:08","slug":"ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Ainsworth Commons Provides Comfortable, New Study Spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Patrons expressed a need, administrators listened, funds were provided and staff members pitched in to further enhance the J.D. Williams Library.<\/p>\n

The result is an overhauled and enlarged study commons on the library\u2019s first floor. The more user-friendly, updated facility includes six new group work spaces, 18 additional computer workstations and 30 new chairs, plus more electrical and cell phone charging outlets and a new printer.<\/p>\n

The remodeled area has been named the Ainsworth Commons to honor donors Oscar Richard and Edith Wetzel Ainsworth. The couple\u2019s estate provided close to $1 million for long-term library funding, with a small portion going toward the commons project and the remainder being placed in an endowment.<\/p>\n

The expanded area opened this fall after the project began in spring 2012. The upgrade was based on a survey conducted among library patrons that generated more than 1,300 responses and served as a planning guide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely listened to our undergraduate students, who made up 56 percent of the survey respondents,\u201d said Julia Rholes, dean of university libraries. \u201cIt seems that, more than ever, our students \u2013 especially undergraduates \u2013 are being assigned projects where they work in groups, and we wanted to meet that need. They wanted more technology, more collaborative work spaces, group work arrangements and more comfortable seating.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Two seniors in the business school have a set schedule with several of their peers to meet in the commons area for group study, which they have been doing all year. They agree that the upgraded Ainsworth Commons serves them well and are especially pleased with the new group work spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way the area is arranged with separate cubicles makes a [calmer] atmosphere and gives us more privacy for studying as a group without disturbing others,\u201d said Joslyn Matthews of Madison.<\/p>\n

Edward Watkins of Madison agreed, saying, \u201cI like it because of the privacy, but if we want to take a break individually and, say, read a book, we can go to the area close by where there are plush, comfortable chairs and relax.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the most challenging aspects of the project was finding the space to expand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the same amount of space (in the building) we\u2019ve always had, and we\u2019re always looking for its best use,\u201d Rholes said.<\/p>\n

The area identified for conversion near the existing commons primarily housed metal cabinets full of microforms, DVDs, VHS materials and documents. While the design team, headed by Courtney Jones of UM Facilities Planning, completed its initial work, Stan Whitehorn, operations manager, organized the library\u2019s teams, including the access services group that emptied the area and prepared it for paint.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a large, comprehensive project that involved almost everyone employed in the library,\u201d Whitehorn said. \u201cEveryone pitched in because they knew what the end goal was: more and better study space for our patrons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 125 microforms cabinets were moved to an area previously occupied by state documents and government documents archives. At this point, the technical services and government documents teams pitched in to view each of the archival items and make a decision as to its eventual location, with most going to the Library Annex.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing we deliberately do is keep looking at low-use materials that can be housed at remote storage locations and categorized so that we can easily get an item within a day at the request of any library patron,\u201d Rholes said.<\/p>\n

Besides expressing their needs, survey respondents also commented positively on the library\u2019s current provisions, said Melissa Dennis, outreach and instruction librarian, who administered the survey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall satisfaction was very positive across the board,\u201d Dennis said. \u201cA lot of people commented on the changes we\u2019ve made in recent years, especially in regard to facilities, and they just want more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dean said that library patrons, especially graduate students who are doing independent research or simply want to study alone, enjoy the 100 study carrels and the graduate student study rooms that have been available for almost a decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know they\u2019re in the building using our resources and they want more ways to use them is great,\u201d Dennis added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrons expressed a need, administrators listened, funds were provided and staff members pitched in to further enhance the J.D. Williams Library. The result is an overhauled and enlarged study commons on the library\u2019s first floor. The more user-friendly, updated facility includes six new group work spaces, 18 additional computer workstations and 30 new chairs, plusRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[831,1167],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAinsworth Commons Provides Comfortable, New Study Spaces - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ainsworth Commons Provides Comfortable, New Study Spaces - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Patrons expressed a need, administrators listened, funds were provided and staff members pitched in to further enhance the J.D. Williams Library. The result is an overhauled and enlarged study commons on the library\u2019s first floor. The more user-friendly, updated facility includes six new group work spaces, 18 additional computer workstations and 30 new chairs, plusRead the story …\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-09-23T13:27:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/RKJ_2068-B-300x199.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@OleMissRebels\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/\",\"name\":\"Ole Miss News\",\"description\":\"The official source for University of Mississippi news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/RKJ_2068-B-300x199.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/\",\"name\":\"Ainsworth Commons Provides Comfortable, New Study Spaces - Ole Miss News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-09-23T13:27:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/8b6e223dd0bf1755ba903576c69132fa\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ainsworth-commons-provides-comfortable-new-study-spaces\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#\/schema\/person\/8b6e223dd0bf1755ba903576c69132fa\",\"name\":\"lmphill2\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/0.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6cbf2a2e8e0347309ffe57be863ca429?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"lmphill2\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32603"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39828,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32603\/revisions\/39828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}