The third floor's storage area was just as claustrophobic. A vast number of rare books, manuscripts, files, videos, audio cassettes, maps, artworks and other assets were stuffed into a space about one-third the size of the bookshelf area on any of the other floors. The situation was exacerbated by a total lack of office space. Archivists' desks were squeezed in among stored items. The newly renovated fourth floor, by contrast, offers oceans of room.
Stacks fill the rest, as before the renovation.
Librarians created space by carefully weeding the collection and taking the excess to the Knouse storage building near the Ice House complex. A bank of windows looks through an arched alcove of the new reading room, which is probably four times the size of the old one. The carpeted floor, wooden furniture and drop ceiling provide a much more comfortable atmosphere than other areas of the library. Shelves and glass-fronted exhibition cabinets ring the room. We'll be able to use the reading room as a museum of sorts.