Lilly Library finally to be handicapped-accesible

Students walking in front of the Lilly Library will soon no longer have to dodge yellow caution tape, walk around makeshift fences and avoid construction workers.\nThe construction, which began in early July, will be over "in the next few weeks," said Jim Champion, IU libraries' facilities operations and renovations officer.\nThe library will soon be handicapped-accessible with new ramps and an accessible restroom, according to the Library's Web site.\n"They're reconstructing the entrance with two wheelchair ramps, one to the right and one to the left," said Director of the Lilly Library Breon Mitchell. "They're also renovating the restroom on the main floor of exhibit galleries for wheelchair use."\nMitchell said in the past, visitors in wheelchairs who wanted to use the library had to enter through the back of the building and had to be brought upstairs via an elevator.\n"This gives them full access like everyone else through the front," he said. \nChampion said the construction has been delayed only a day or so at a time because of rain. \nWhile its Web site cautions the library might be closed some days due to the construction, Curator of Books Joel Silver said the library had not been closed at all because of the work and this was the time frame they had anticipated for the construction to be completed.\nMitchell noted the library was built in the 1960s, a time when most buildings on campus were not wheelchair-accessible.\n"This is a big step forward for us and for campus to make the Lilly more accessible for those in wheelchairs," he said.\n"It has long been a general consensus here at the library (to make it wheelchair accessible) and has been something that we've wanted to get done for a while," Silver added. "I'm glad this is finally getting done."\n-- Contact Weekend copy chief Laura Kruty at lkruty@indiana.edu.