Dear Orange Friends:
Syracuse University rededicated our Carnegie Library Reading Room this past week. I am including in this message a link to two pictures, one that captures how the place looked when it first opened in 1907, and the other showing the results of the painstaking restoration effort.
Andrew Carnegie gave $150,000 to Syracuse University to build this library at the same time he was funding 2,500 libraries in towns across the United States. Most of the Carnegie libraries are gone, casualties of tight budgets and deferred maintenance. After the Bird Library opened in 1972, our Carnegie Library and its Reading Room also gradually faded, and until this semester you could not even walk through its front doors.
This past week, students, faculty, donors, and staff celebrated the reopening. You can now walk up the front steps off Shaw Quadrangle, through a beautiful lobby with a restored statue of Diana the Huntress, and then step into a high-ceilinged reading room filled with light, restored study tables, and dozens of students. It is an iconic space, and I encourage you to check it out. As we celebrate National Orange Day today, marking SU’s 144th birthday, it is a historic place that defines our home, as great university library spaces should do.
Many people worked to make this happen. If you have a chance, please reach out to thank the donors, librarians, faculty, staff, external contractors and facilities personnel, who worked on this great project. I’ve included a link to a list of these heroes in this message as well.
Chancellor Kent Syverud