{"id":9296,"date":"2012-08-30T08:41:09","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T18:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=9296"},"modified":"2023-03-15T14:05:54","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T00:05:54","slug":"windward-celebrates-library-grand-opening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2012\/08\/30\/windward-celebrates-library-grand-opening\/","title":{"rendered":"Windward celebrates library grand opening"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><div class=\"responsive-video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7_Vc8m9jQBM?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0\" width=\"676\" height=\"380\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wcc.hawaii.edu\/\">Windward Community College<\/a> has a new heart. It\u2019s a place for students to gather, collaborate, study and learn. A three story, 69-thousand square foot <a href=\"http:\/\/library.wcc.hawaii.edu\/\">Library Learning Commons<\/a> named Hale <span aria-label=\"Laakea\">La\u02bbakea<\/span> or Hall of Enlightment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love it,\u201d said Windward student <strong>Gianna Malia Maugeri<\/strong>. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m stoked on it,\u201d agreed fellow student <strong>Dallas Morgan<\/strong>. \u201cIt\u2019s a really good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means a lot because now I have an actual place to study because our old library was so small and it just didn\u2019t feel right,\u201d said Windward student <strong>Kayleen Sur<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen students walk in here, they\u2019ve got that look of wonderment and amazement and just the sheer delight of knowing that we are really in college now,\u201d said Windward Chancellor <strong>Doug Dykstra<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Construction started in 2010 and Hale <span aria-label=\"Laakea\">La\u02bbakea<\/span> was opened at the start of the 2012 fall semester. A blessing and grand opening was held to mark the completion of the 22 million dollar project, which replaced an 80-year old structure. Now the college\u2019s library, computing services, media center and student services and labs that used to be scattered across the campus are all in one, very impressive building.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of us put a lot of hard work, our energy and we built this beautiful structure and we have a place for students to learn and study,\u201d said Windward Head Librarian <strong>Nancy Heu<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The project was a decades old dream first conceived when libraries were quiet, strict places. Hale <span aria-label=\"Laakea\">La\u02bbakea<\/span> is a contemporary learning environment with it\u2019s own coffee shop.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s amazing. I actually got a caramel frappe today and it just feels way better,\u201d said Morgan. \u201cYou know the library before was nice but it was really tiny and there is so much room here so it feels great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow we have this place where we could focus more, we have a bunch of computers, the printer is all set for us and the coffee shop so it\u2019s pretty great,\u201d agreed Sur.<\/p>\n<p>The library also has longer hours now and is the first green library in the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai\u02bbi<\/span> System with photovoltaic panels, a design that uses the natural light and much, much more. 80 percent of the building it replaced was recycled and much of it was reused in Hale <span aria-label=\"Laakea\">La\u02bbakea<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe benches are recycled. and everything is recycled and I see recycling upstairs, it\u2019s awesome,\u201d said Maugeri.<\/p>\n<p>Administrators say this is just a beginning. The college hopes that the Hale <span aria-label=\"Laakea\">La\u02bbakea<\/span> is a magnet that brings the community to the campus as Windward looks to continue to expand it programs and facilities for things like Hawaiian Studies and biotechnology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also want to get in on the ground floor on sustainable agriculture, aquaponics,\u201d said Dykstra.<\/p>\n<p>Another dream that will one day become a reality\u2026like Hale <span aria-label=\"Laakea\">La\u02bbakea<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Windward Community College held a grand opening ceremony for their Library Learning Commons, the first green library in the <abbr>¶«¾«Ó°Òµ<\/abbr> System.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,12],"tags":[21,207,326,71,66],"class_list":["post-9296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-video","tag-21st-century-facilities","tag-library","tag-library-learning-commons","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-windward-community-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9296"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174307,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9296\/revisions\/174307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}