If pumpkin-spiced lattes and treadmill desks weren’t reason enough for you to cram in those extra hours of study time, Carleton’s library now has a new tunnel entrance to tempt you this fall. 

“The library is the centre of academic life and is now more accessible than ever,” said university president Benoit-Antoine Bacon with a backdrop of welcoming balloons at the entrance’s Monday morning launch.

The “coincidental” timing to open the new entrance fits perfectly ahead of the winter season, MacOdrum Library manager Gilles Monast told the Charlatan. 

“I’m sure it’ll become our busiest entrance pretty fast with about 80 per cent people coming through there,” said Monast. “There’s a lot of foot traffic here in the winter so people are quite happy it’s happening now.”

The entrance opened Monday morning, Oct. 28 with official Carleton-coloured balloons. [Photo by Tim Austen]
The library’s been working on making the door—which previously existed as a fire escape—into a regular entrance for a while now, said Monast, “but we went ahead this year after funding for it came through.”

The new entrance is steps away from the only elevator which connects the tunnels to the library, making it a busy spot for those who require an accessible entrance. 

Last winter, that elevator broke down twice after mechanical failures led to fire alarms and complete library evacuations within a span of three days. 

Patrons requiring tunnel access during that period could only do so after calling library staff who would let them in from a nearby fire escape, otherwise closed to students. 

“The new entrance will certainly help preventing anything like that,” said Monast. “And that’s big, because it definitely makes everything much more accessible for anyone that requires assistance.” 

The new entrance, however, is only one of multiple reasons behind construction tape in the library for the past few weeks. 

Several other areas were cordoned off on the second and third floor to set up increased seating space, as well as an area housing a new “living book arts technology” space on the second floor. 

Students using the new library entrance have presented mostly positive feedback, said Monast. “We’re looking forward to hearing more from them in the following weeks.” 

“Not gonna lie, but I’m pretty damn lazy when I’m coming to the library to camp here and cram for exams,” said second-year psychology student Cassie Browning. “So this is pretty neat.” 

Fourth-year sociology student Mohamed Ahmed said he agreed, but questions how many people will actually notice the new entrance. 

“I mean, I’m just wondering what happens when there’s no balloons at the entrance anymore? Do we really care about it as much then?”

The tunnel entrance will be open every day during regular hours, but Monast said it will not be part of the new 24/7 library hours on most weekdays which require student ID at the second floor entrance after 11:30 p.m. 

Featured image by Tim Austen.

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