Staff members of Zimmerman Library commemorated Wednesday the second anniversary of the fire that gutted the library's basement.
The fire happened April 30, 2006. It burned a 7,500-square-foot area, damaging the upper basement on the eastern side of the building.
Staff members wore yellow caution tape as hair bows and neckties.
President David Schmidly said Zimmerman Library is one of the University's greatest treasures.
"There's no place on a campus more viable to its academic health than its library. It is the center of scholarship," he said. "It is the place where students go and seriously engage in the kind of scholarship that sets a research university apart from a different kind of university."
Martha Bedard, dean of University Libraries, said it was important to showcase what has happened at the library during its two years of renovations.
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"We bought a whole lot of compact shelving for the basement so that we could house our collections in a much smaller space, and then provide more public spaces for the students," she said. "We've got 10 brand-new group study rooms, and they're always full. We have an electronic classroom with 40 new computers in it, and we've got soft, comfortable chairs to sit in."
Deborah Cole, library information specialist, said the staff put together a book called The Zimmerman Fire Recollections.
Cole said the library gave copies of the book to its workers, former employees and peer institutions.
"We decided that maybe it would be nice to collect some writings and stuff from people about what the fire experience was like, and it grew into something much more," she said. "It grew into interviews and whatnot and ended up with this creative process of making this book that attempts to be something like the experience of the last two years."
Associated Students of UNM President Ashley Fate said she was proud of how the library staff pulled together after the fire.
"I think that this library serves as a place for community and for students to come and congregate," she said. "I think, above all else, this library is representative of what a student is here on this campus for. It's to gain knowledge. It's to be able to utilize their resources. The best part of today is being able to see that come to fruition."
