Friedsam Memorial Library partially lit up, due to the outage.
The employee hallway in the basement of the library.
The generator that kept the library running all week.
Crane that was used to lift transformer to be installed.
Photos courtesy of Chris Doody.
BY: CHRIS DOODY, CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Power has been fully restored to the Friedsam Memorial Library at St. Bonaventure University. On Wednesday, March 18, a new transformer was installed on the library allowing for the building to operate at its full capacity again.
“The library is now open,” said Ann Tenglund, director of the library. “Everything is running as it should, and the temperature is not too bad either.”
The library reopened at 5:30 p.m., returning to its temporary hours: Monday-Thursday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., according to the notice board.
According to facilities director, Jared Smith, in order for the library repairs to take place there was a temporary electric shutdown which affected these six buildings across campus:
- Quick Center – temporary loss of power at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- Devereux Hall – loss of power at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- Administration Building – loss of power at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- Boiler Plant – loss of power; the generator continued to operate the boilers and hot water
- University Ministries – loss of power at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.
- Reilly Center – loss of power at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. Backup generator provided power during downtime
“The building has been amazingly resilient to be able to be operating the way it is,” said Tenglund. “The generator has been running non-stop since the transformer blew on Wednesday, [March 11].”
A transformer failure caused the power outage in the library on March 11.
“Facilities ordered a new [transformer], which was shipped from Ohio,” said Tenglund. “They also had to arrange for a crane to lift it off the delivery truck and place it on campus.”
Tenglund said she told library employees to dress warm during their shifts while the power was out because the heat was affected by the outage. She also told them they “may get occasional complaints from people who are having trouble finding working outlets,” because the outage caused random outlets to work.
While walking around the library during the outage, students could see an assortment of lights out and temporary fixes done by IT.
“The IT department has responded very well under the circumstances we are in,” said Tenglund. “In the main floor classroom, the projector and half of the computers were without power; however, IT found a way to work around these outlets not working and classes were able to continue on Thursday, [March 12], when we reopened.”
Tenglund said the archive and rare books collection is still being looked after, even though there is no power to support the humidity controlled environment.
“We have placed fans in the rare books exhibit and have had to restrict access to it,” said Tenglund. “We have some visiting Friars coming on Wednesday, [March 18]. I have some of the resources they came to see and I’m planning on bringing it out to them. Hopefully they will be willing to come and visit us again another time.”
Nearly all of the offices in the library were affected by the power outage, according to Tenglund.
Tenglund said she moved her computer into another room to have a temporary work station while other library employees got creative with how they made their offices work.
The server room, hosting the school’s WiFi network, was affected minimally by this as it is on its own generator, according to Tenglund.
Tenglund said she was thankful for the reactions by students, faculty and staff. She also said that she was especially grateful for the fast work of IT, maintenance and facilities and how they accomplished to get the library up and running.
“Students have been really kind about the issues we’ve been experiencing; some haven’t even noticed,” said Tenglund. “I also worked with some of the professors and tutors that were scheduled to be in here and I found them somewhere to relocate to.”
