Renovation transforms Morse Library for the college and the community
The transformative $10 million renovation of Morse Library will be completed this summer and the library will reopen in August.
The renovation by Angus-Young Associates includes key infrastructure and cosmetic changes to make the library more welcoming, efficient, and accessible to college and community members.
“The library has had a legacy on campus for 60 years, and it’s being transformed with the features that today’s students want,” says Chief Information Officer and Library Director Ted Wilder.
Former President Scott Bierman kicked off the project in 2022 with a $9 million Wisconsin Neighborhood Investment Fund grant to strengthen campus ties with the City of Beloit. The renovation broke ground in June 2023.
Library services, staff, and a selection of books were moved to the Powerhouse during construction. Some College Archives materials were stored in the Wright Museum and the rest at a Milwaukee storage facility. LITS staff, Archivist Emeritus Fred Burwell’86, and volunteers began moving the collection back into the library in late spring, continuing into the summer.
Morse Library’s new community entrance on the north side of the lower level opens to the Career Works office and Impact Beloit, the college’s career-readiness and community involvement initiative. Shorter, ADA-compliant metal stacks replaced the old versions, and books were reorganized without reducing the collection.
The lower two levels were reconfigured with more study spaces and updated lighting, paint, carpeting, and fixtures. The gendered bathroom stalls were transformed into all-gender, single-stall bathrooms. Mobile, comfortable furniture allows students to configure group study spaces to their needs. There will also be a reservable room for lactation, meditation, and prayer.
The upper level, which Wilder calls the heritage floor, received a light touch: new stacks, paint, and lighting. “The green carpeting and blocky blue furniture will be up there, so if you like the 1991 renovation, you may visit it anytime you wish,” he says.
Morse Library opened in 1961 and was last renovated in 1991.
