Mabee Library is undergoing construction in preparation for new offices. For the next six weeks, there will be two weekly events where students can get the latest updates on the construction within the library.

During Mondays at Mabee, at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., students can ask Alan Bearman, dean of libraries, questions about Mabee’s progress in exchange for some pizza.

Thursday mornings from 8:30 to 9:30 is “The Dr. is In.” Bearman will be answering questions from students about the construction and treats any interested student to a cup of coffee from Study Grounds.

The idea for both events came from First Year Experience peer educator Randi McAfee, junior criminal justice major, as a way to communicate with the students.

Construction started in mid July and is expected to be complete by the end of October.

“We moved library operations to the first floor. The first floor is currently closed for students, which can be an inconvenience and we apologize for that,” said Sean Bird, assistant dean of libraries. “We’re closing at 11 p.m. while under construction and will open back to 2 a.m. (with fortune) at the end of October. We want to be back open at 2 a.m.”

The hub of Mabee (the main area) will look the same, but there will be a new electronic classroom where the current offices of dean of libraries and administrative assistant are. The wall between both offices will come down to make that expansion. The Academic Success Center will be relocated inside of Mabee to make room for the Welcome Center once construction at Morgan begins in February 2014.

The Writing Center will be combined with the tutoring services, making room for a new conference room. Tutoring will move to the third floor, and the First Year Experience office will transfer to the tutoring center’s current location.

“We want to create a student success experience with research and information literacy, handled by librarians by academic advisors and tutoring,” said Bird.

Once construction is completed, the offices for advisors will be back on the second floor. On the third floor, there will be new offices for both the dean of libraries and the administrative assistant.

“Things that students will notice the most is the improvement in the Wi-Fi for the building,” said Bearman.

Mabee will have both Twitter and Facebook feeds with a slideshow containing updates. Both links will be available at http://www.washburn.edu/mabee/

“While they’re constructing, we’ll keep talking,” said Bearman.