Renovations Continue for MC's Leland Speed Library

Renovations continue this summer for Mississippi College’s Leland Speed Library that’s seen its share of improvements in recent years.

New carpeting, replaced bathroom fixtures, fresh coats of paint, new furniture, the addition of study rooms and a coffee shop serving Starbucks have been some of the changes for the library built in 1959.

There’s more coming starting in August. Work began to refurbish the building’s basement, the latest in a series of renovations that began about four years ago on the Clinton campus.

Leland Speed Library Director Kathleen Hutchison is thrilled about the building’s renaissance and the additional work coming this summer.

“Beginning in the fall we will have new furniture including all new study tables and chairs plus some soft seating in a newly configured carpeted area for study,” Hutchison said. “Five group study rooms are also being added to this area with whiteboards in each room for group study and discussion.”

One of the most appealing additions to the library along College Street has been the small group study rooms, the librarian added.

Students are big boosters of all the changes to upgrade the Leland Speed Library and welcome the newest renovations.

“I absolutely love the new study rooms upstairs,” says MC junior Elizabeth Hollis of Pearl. “These little cubes of soundproof glass are perfect for studying with a group.”

Also, “the updates to the downstairs area are exciting. As silly as it may sound, I really appreciate the new lighting in the basement,” said Hollis, whose major is biology/secondary education. “Between the new lights and the fresh carpet, everything is so bright and cheerful down there.”

Staffers like Heather Weeden, a Clinton resident who is the special collections librarian, also rave about the improvements. “We have worked hard to offer an even more welcoming and home-like environment for our students,” she said. “We want them to not just come to the library to use our computers and get research assistance, but to see it as a place where they can comfortably study in a group or on their own.”

The Leland Speed Library is like Grand Central Station on the MC campus. The library is the heart of the institution. It’s always a popular place for students to study and do research. The building houses 253,818 books, 38,656 bound periodicals, 581 print periodical subscriptions and 18,348 media items. The Learning Resources Center on the library’s main floor houses 12,969 media titles and a studio equipped for digital video production. There’s a small conference meeting room, lots of beautiful pieces of art throughout the building, and interesting collections like typewriters from decades ago. The library keeps records, photographs and newspapers dealing with Baptist churches around the Magnolia State.

In the building, the Mississippi College Archives serves as the “memory” of the Christian university. The library’s electronic classroom with 28 computers and 13 small group study rooms are often frequented by students up until midnight closing time. The building also hosts speakers and book signing events with authors.

Steve Stanford, MC’s vice president for administration and government relations, is overseeing a long list of building projects on the MC campus this summer. The work on the Leland Speed Library is one that really embraces the needs of students amid many changes in technology, he said.

“We are fortunate that our library staff is actively seeking to make it accommodating, useful and inviting,” Stanford said. It’s happening in an extremely busy, “high-traffic” facility, he noted.

“We have been fortunate over the last few years to include these efforts with others seeking to provide a growing university with the physical facilities and programs that meet needs,” Stanford said.

This ever-changing library is certainly meeting the needs of McLaurin High math teacher Brad Johns. The Magee resident is a graduate student in MC’s doctoral program in educational leadership. A 1994 MC graduate, the educator says he spends considerable time this summer hitting the books and doing research on computers at the Leland Speed Library.