Architectural rendering of the entrance to the new reading room shows an inviting atmoshpere with its large windows and doors.

The current reference room (shown above) will vastly different after renovations are completed.

Take a look at some more photos of the current reading room as well as representations of how it will look after renovated.

Sunlight! Tables! Books! Heaven.

Plans for a new reading room.

Envisioned as a space on the first floor of the Wells Library’s East Tower, a redesigned reading room will offer a quiet, inspiring space for research and study. Low bookshelves will optimize the benefits of tall windows and natural light, features missing in other parts of the library. Large tables and comfortable seating will encourage scholars to spread out their books and study comfortably for hours at a time.

The redesigned reading room will serve as the first-floor centerpiece for the proposed Research Commons, a full-service research facility that will extend throughout the Wells Library’s East Tower. By serving faculty and graduate students with technology and traditional services, the Research Commons will redefine how the East Tower meets the needs of today’s scholars.

Despite the vastly different needs of library users today, many areas of the Wells Library have not changed since the building’s opening nearly 40 years ago. Responding to student and faculty needs, library administrators have been renovating the Wells Library, one floor at a time, starting with the West Tower. Since 2003, undergraduate students have embraced the Information Commons, which originally occupied only the first floor of the West Tower. It success has led to renovations on floors two through five, made possible, in part, through private donations.

For information about giving to the Herman B Wells Library Reading Room, contact Susan Yoon, Executive Director of Development, at (812) 855-4182 or susyoon@indiana.edu