After many years of planning, deferred maintenance renovations are now under way in the McLennan and Redpath libraries. The project, which is planned to be completed by next September, will replace the libraries’ 50-year-old heating and cooling systems.

“In both of these libraries there’s a real variation in the comfort. It’s often too cold or too hot,” said Amber Lannon, the renovation’s project leader. “With the old equipment we have it’s hard to get the temperature in the right range.”

Lannon also noted that the new system will also be more environmentally efficient. During the replacement of the mechanical room equipment (scheduled for after the exam period) however, temperatures in the buildings may be warmer until the new equipment is in place. Students may also notice work in progress and increased noise.

Because the work will be constrained to relatively small areas however, Lannon is confident the impact on students will be limited.

“We can’t say there won’t be any impact during the exam period, because of course in the area being directly worked on, there will be impact,” she said. “But because they are going floor by floor and working on relatively small areas at a time, the impact should be minimal. We will direct students to other study areas as the work progresses.” Carole urbain, associate director of Client Services (Humanities, Law, Management and Social Sciences) added that access to the libraries’ collections should not be affected at any point. In addition, students will be kept up to date regarding where exactly in the library renovations are currently taking place through a special page on the library website. On site signage and renovation messages on public screens will also be posted throughout the library.

“The workers themselves will work from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.,” Urbain said. “Also, there will be no impact on the 24-hour access.”

For the current status on McLennan-Redpath library renovations, visit  mcgill.ca/library/library-about/renovations/