On Friday, November 8, the Campo Library officially held its grand reopening ceremony during lunch. The event included a host of clubs, live music, activities, as well as an official name change to the “Library Student Center.” The event comes after years of planned renovations failed to produce any materialistic changes to the space. However, with new technological improvements recently implemented, Head Librarian Jennifer Frugaletti used the event as a way to let students “see that we have changed the space and made it more student friendly.”
As part of Frugaletti’s vision to rebrand the Cougar library, the event included many club displays inside and out, with some offering games for prizes. For instance, club leader and sophomore Madeline Sheng-Williams said, “I was standing at a table with a presentation about the photography club…It was way busier than I expected, and I thought the live music was a good touch.” Other clubs at the event included the Aeronautics and Rocketry Club, Pledge to Humanity, the Robotics Club, Campo’s Book Club, and numerous other volunteer clubs.
Junior Weston Hoppe, a member of the Campo Jazz combo, performed during the Library’s Grand Reopening. A saxophonist, Hoppe played several songs including crowd favorite Fly Me to the Moon. “I liked how they put all the clubs there so you could see them, it felt a lot more vibrant because it’s normally pretty quiet. I also loved the hot chocolate because it just made [the event] a lot more cozy,” said Hoppe.
A contributor to the planning of the event’s overall success, junior Isabelle Culinco and Board Head of Student Support in Leadership said, “we talked with [Frugaletti] in the library and brainstormed what we wanted to see at the reopening.” Culinco added “the hot chocolate was really popular…the music was really nice, it provided a good environment…and it was nice having the clubs there. It gave [the event] a more student-run vibe.”
With final exams coming up, Frugaletti’s event served as a larger campaign to reintroduce the library to students as a “collaborative” space for studying. “We want kids to be not only enjoying their time together when they’re being social, but also enjoying their time together when they’re studying. I think it just encourages really good academic behavior in addition to social behavior,” Frugaletti said.
With events like the re-opening, Frugatti’s “ultimate goal is to continue to modernize, modernize, modernize.” And while Frugaletti is changing many things about the library including its name, she emphasizes the original purpose of the library is still there: “It is still a library. We didn’t want that name to go away, because we don’t want anyone to think it’s not a library anymore…the goal here is that more events are taking place here that are planned by students for students…we’re going more for a college vibe, kind of like a Student Union.”
