The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

Disposal of asbestos in Morris planned

Lindsey J. Mastis

Daily Egyptian

In a few years, students may push a button to get a book instead of walking through the endless aisles of Morris Library hunting for the correct series of letters and numbers.

With compact shelving, libraries will conserve space while helping students in the book hunting process. This trend will appear at Morris when renovations begin, but before anything can be done, the asbestos in the ceiling and floor tile must be removed.

Contractors gathered in Morris Wednesday for a pre-bid meeting to assess the cost of the asbestos removal, a project that will begin Nov. 1. The bids are due next Wednesday by 2 p.m.

The project is estimated to cost about $400,000 to $500,000, said James Fox, building planning librarian. He said Morris Library is trying to spend renovation money prudently so funds can be used for additional removal of asbestos.

"The money that we would have otherwise spent on nice ceilings and lights, we're going to spend to abate what we call the alternate area," he said.

To save money, industrial lights will be used and the ventilation ducts will have holes to blow air inside the basement instead of having separate registers, Fox said. The extra money will be used to abate asbestos from another portion of the basement.

New compact shelving will replace the older shelves. Fox said compact shelving is heavy, but weight of the units is not an issue because of the basement's strong foundation.

"The compact shelving units will be on rails so [there] won't be as many aisles," he said. "So, basically, you can put twice as many books in an area with compact shelves."

Bret Kramer, a bidder with Elite Environmental Services, said that working in the library during open hours might be difficult.

"The thing that interests us about this project is that it's pretty complex and it will generate some revenue for our company if we were to be the lucky bidder," he said. "It proposes some unique situations; it's a challenge for us to come in and Σ still be able to work while the library still continues on."

Courtice Bowman, project manager, said the renovation will take combined efforts from the library and contractors.

"There is involvement for electrical and ventilation work," he said. "I will try to coordinate the work between the contractors to make sure the work is done on time."

Reporter Lindsey J. Mastis can be reached at LJMastis@dailyeygptian.com

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