Posted by Tegan O'Neil
By the end of February, coffee and pastries will be available on the first floor of the Lucy Scribner Library. A new café, formally known as "Lucy's", will serve Green Mountain Coffee, tea, juices, an assortment of bottled beverages, yogurt, fresh fruit, and freshly baked cookies, muffins, croissants, scones and donuts.
?The newest dining location will be open between 8 a.m. and noon Monday through Friday and 8 p.m. and midnight Sunday through Thursday.
"Students have been asking for a café in the library forever," Director of Dining Services Bill Canney said.
According to Canney, the decision to add the café was partially influenced by a Skidmore News editorial, "Make library competitive," published on Dec. 3, 2010.
"The library might even consider installing options for refreshments – be they as exciting as a late-night coffee bar or as mundane as a vending machine – to accommodate the hundreds of students studying late into the night," read the editorial.
Belson Design Architects designed the 160 square foot space that previously housed the copy and fax machines.
The copy room has been relocated to the ground floor of the library.?
College Librarian Ruth Copans said she is thrilled about the project.
"I am beside myself with happiness and glee because I know this will make students really happy.? It will be tiny, but it will be a little jewel," she said.?
Copans said that she had wanted a small, convenient café in the library for a long time but never thought it was going to happen.?
"It came down to a question of redundancy. Burgess is located close by and students have three other dining locations in a relatively close proximity," Copans said.
Bill Canney said he is confident that the new location will be serving a campus need. "I expect a steady flow of students," he said.
Leah Shorser '14 said, "Seeing that I'm there until one in the morning quite often, I think it is a good thing.? I am always going to Burgess and that can be a pain when it's cold outside and I don't want to leave the library.? It will certainly be convenient."?
Other students expressed concerns about the increase in traffic and noise level on the first floor of the library.?
"I think it will make the already noisy and crowded first floor even more noisy and crowded.? I'm not opposed to it, but I can't see the major upside," Margaret Myers '13 said.
Dining Services has anticipated this concern and has decided to brew coffee using a Keurig single cup brewing system as a way to reduce the noise level. ?
Student workers will staff the café.? Sharon Foley, retail supervisor for Dining Services, said that students who have worked in Burgess Café will be most eligible to work in the new café.
Foley also said that upperclassmen will have priority and that she will determine which dining services workers will work in the library café based on their previous performance.?
The library café will have a soft opening in order to "work out the kinks," Canney said.?
After the first week, Dining Services will start marketing that the café is open by sending out e-mails and posting signs around campus.
So far, the space has been painted, fitted with a door and windows and is covered in slate flooring.? "We are excited about it.? We think it will be a positive move," Canney said.