The construction work on the new Textbook Rental facility, located on Edgar Drive, is complete. The building is scheduled to be available for students before Fall 2010.

The facility is expected to be completed as a whole by April 1, and some of its benefits are a software program to inventory textbooks and facilitate their distribution, a 24-hour drop box outside the building, a close location to student housing and off-street parking. The purpose of the facility is to eliminate the space constraints of the current facility, which is currently attached to Pemberton Hall.

Stephen Shrake, associate director for design and construction, said the process of substantial completion lasted nine months.

On Sept. 8, 2009 the Board of Trustees unanimously approved $415,000 to finance the construction of the new facility.

“A notice to proceed was issued to the contractors on Jan. 6, 2009, and substantial completion was achieved in November,” Shrake said. “The shelving was installed in January and the automated check-in/ check-out system started later in January.”

The deadline expectation never changed; the latest update on the construction side of the facility indicates that the building will meet the April 1 deadline.

“The construction work is complete,” Shrake said. “The contractors have just performed some warranty work on the plumbing system and floor finish that required us to temporarily move some of the shelving. The shelving is currently being placed back in the correct position.”

Linda Moore, who has a leadership role in the Radio Frequency Identification project, said that during the spring semester, staff was hired to install the RFID tags.

“All of the books that are currently being held by Textbook Rental have the RFI tag installed in, and we created a highly-enhanced student employment force that work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., two shifts a day, six days a week this semester and they were able to put the RIFD tags in all the books that we currently have,” Moore said. “The majority of the books are out because students have them, but we’ve got through everything that we currently have in inventory in the building and that is a major accomplishment.”

Shrake said the remaining work of the new Textbook Rental project consists of installing furniture, finalizing the automated check-in/check-out system – which is being coordinated with the ITS department – and seeding and landscape work, which depends on the weather.

Pablo Rodriguez can be reached at 581-7942

or jprodriguez@eiu.edu