With a scheduled completion date of Feb. 20, students are still waiting to use D.H. Hill Library’s new reading room that will be replacing the bean bag chairs that filled the room last year.

But renovations on the library are on schedule with the ground and first floors completely finished.

According to Construction Manager Eric Jaskolka, the renovations are approximately 72 percent finished.

“We are currently on schedule for a Feb. 20 completion,” Jaskolka said. “The new facilities will be a big improvement for the library.”

The ground and first floors still remain off limits to students and faculty due to construction directly above the completed sections.

“We want to make sure that everything is complete and safe before people are allowed into these sections,” Jaskolka said.

According to the NCSU Libraries Web site, the renovations include a Special Collections Research Center, a new reading room and an exhibit gallery. Also a technology-rich Learning Commons is under construction on the first floor and the building’s infrastructure is being upgraded.

“I’m glad that they are renovating the library,” Michael Altman, freshman in electrical engineering, said. “It’ll provide the students with more resources.”

The renovations to D.H. Hill are part of the library’s master plan, which addresses space issues over the next 20 years. The plan provides for a four-phase approach that includes the current renovations and additions to the D. H. Hill and construction of a library on Centennial Campus. The current renovations are the first phase of the master plan and are funded by $9.2 million in bond money.

Workers still need to renovate offices and classrooms on the second floor. They also need to finish walls, install power to the new computer workstations and finish installing the ceiling before the new sections are open to the public.

“This is a phased project; we work on one section at a time,” Jaskolka said. “We want to make sure an area is completely finished before we shift people around.”

While students say they look forward to the benefits of the improved facilities, some say they find the construction disturbing.

“I was anticipating quiet when I went to the library,” Amanda Bergeron, a freshman in First Year College, said. “Instead, I got noise and distraction; it ruined the studying mood.”

The library restricts construction during quiet hours and exam weeks. Also if the construction workers know that tours will be coming through the library, they limit the noise.

“Most of the noisy work has been completed,” Jaskolka said. “And we try to control the noise that is there. All our projects have a noise control condition.”