By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
John Haak, UH librarian, and Joyce Watson, building planning
coordinator for Hamilton Library, stand outside the old Hamilton
Snack Bar, which will be razed for an addition to the library, rear.
Hamilton Library
spells relief: r-o-o-m
Groundbreaking will be held next
By Pat Omandam
summer to expand the complex
Star-BulletinJoyce Watson knows Hamilton Library so well she can explain why wires can't be run through the egg-crate design on the first-floor ceiling, how the air-conditioning system keeps the building part frigid and part stuffy, and what study areas were overrun by shelves of books. As the person who oversaw Hamilton's last expansion in 1977, she has firsthand knowledge of what's needed in the long-overdue third phase of the research library.
"I know the things that are wrong with the building, and know what not to do," Watson said.
In the next few weeks, the University of Hawaii and the firm Matsushita, Saito and Associates will finalize the design for Hamilton's $36.9 million phase III. The university will then go to bid on construction early next year, with ground-breaking next summer.
Librarians would move into the building in the year 2000, said John Haak, university librarian.
"We're thrilled that this is happening," Haak said.
"It's been 12 years of laboring in trying to get this and we see the impact of students not having the same kind of advantages of space and working conditions that they have at other universities. Of course, we want them to have that at this facility."
Phase III, Haak said, will be a separate six-story structure -- a cost-saving measure -- with a sloped roof to be built at the now-closed Hamilton Snack Bar.
The building would connect to the library via first- and second-floor bridges. Access to the structure will continue to be through the main entrance. The addition's outside design would match the library.
Haak said a third of the $36.9 million is for mechanical work, such as special air-conditioning units on the upper three floors designed to stave off mold and mildew. These units, he said, give librarians control over the building's humidity so they can chill collections such as the Hawaii Sugar Planters' Association archives and warm more public areas on the lower floors.
The design also allows the extension to be operated without additional staff.
Haak said the structure's 90,000 square feet will enhance Hamilton's reputation as the "academic arena" for UH and the state. He wants to integrate expanding electronic technology with traditional library resources to give users "one-stop information shopping."
"Where libraries like this have been constructed on other campuses, there's really been kind of a renaissance of activity," Haak said.
"One of the things that we anticipate is that there will be more activity in this library. It's high now, but it's going to increase once we have this facility."
The original structure, named after Thomas H. Hamilton, UH's seventh president, was completed in 1968. Phase II, which expanded the library, was done in 1977. A third phase was slated to be completed in 1985, but a lack of funds and low priority by the state and UH delayed the project until now.
Once the expansion is completed, library patrons should notice twice as much seating -- from 800 to 1,600 -- as well as more electronic links to the Internet and library information databases.
Ron Weidenbach, owner of Hawaii Seafood Inc. and a regular Hamilton user, often peruses the library's science and technology collection and surfs its databases for biological information to help him run his commercial fish farm in Mokuleia.
Without Hamilton, Weidenbach said he'd have to do research in the Hawaii State Library and periodically fly to the University of Washington in Seattle, which houses the second-nearest fisheries library.
"I would support the plan, but I just hope that the monies will be available to maintain it and to keep the collection current," said Weidenbach, a former East-West Center staff member.
As curator of Kauai's National Tropical Botanical Gardens, Melanie Chapin said Hamilton's resources are vital to her work. The expansion would allow her to take her research off the cramped aisle floors, where she often sits to read material, to restored study areas.
"I think that will help a lot," Chapin said.
Watson said funding for phase III is timely. Although Hamilton has 240,000 square feet of usable floor space, it is bulging trying to keep pace with expanding collections and archives.
Evidence of overcrowding includes:
Book shelves set on carpet once used for study and reading areas.
Watson said the Asia Collection is again full and that 50,000 books must be moved from the collection's fourth floor to the ground floor, the only space left where people will have access to them.
The Asia collection is spread throughout Hamilton, with volumes temporarily held at Sinclair and the law libraries, she said.
Assistant Librarian Jean Earhorn said faculty members have pushed for the expansion since 1982, with some professors personally lobbying the UH president for funding.
Raul Chattergy, professor of electrical engineering and a faculty representative on the Manoa Library Committee, remembers not too long ago when funding the expansion seemed unobtainable.
But times change, he said.
"We can do without a college of this or a department of that, but not without a major library like Hamilton," Chattergy said.
Haak said the library is nearly back to its $4 million book budget, which was cut in half two years ago when UH needed to free up cash for the state. And accreditation concerns about space for books and students should ease once the addition is done, he said.
UH also received $200,000 from this year's Legislature for preplanning of the renovation of Sinclair Library. The 41-year-old Sinclair needs more electrical power, air conditioning and a telecommunications upgrade.
"We're looking at the two buildings serving us until some unknown date," Haak said. "We're definitely on the fast track now. The architects are going to have a serious challenge to do what they need to do in the next six months."
Design plans for the six-story addition to Hamilton Library call for these floor assignments: A look at Hamilton's
addition, floor by floor
The library's preservation department will be moved to the sixth floor.
Librarians plan to pursue other archives and collections for these floors.
"The new collections are going to make the library more of a mecca than it already is," said Joyce Watson, building planning coordinator for Hamilton.
"It's the academic arena for the campus."
Watson added that the move will mean more space for the Asia, East Asia and Hawaiiana collections that will remain in the main building.
Here's a roundup of Hamilton Library usage for 1995-1996: Library usage
