Kendall Campus Library Reopens
The Kendall Campus library reopened on April 4, seven weeks after it was closed due to issues with mold at the facility.
Wolfson Campus, which also had an issue with mold at its library, reopened its facility on March 14, a month after it was closed.
According to Juan Mendieta, Miami Dade College’s director of communications, the issues at the Kendall Campus library took longer to address because it is larger.
“The College decided to do a thorough check of the [mold on the] books and in an abundance of caution the College called in a hygienist to clean the books, which took longer than expected,” Mendieta said. “You’d rather be thorough than quick in this case.”
During this six-week process, library employees worked from the computer courtyard or other designated areas on campus. At that time employees were not able to access the library collection. They were, however able to access electronic resources and receive instructions and assistance from other locations.
Each campus at MDC has its own library designed to meet the academic needs of its students, faculty and staff. Each library offers a wide variety of resources including books, e-books, audiovisual materials, magazines and journals.
Services provided at Kendall Campuses include: one-on-one consultation with librarians including information literacy instruction; access to collections which include books, magazines and journals, DVDs and audiobooks; access to computers/Internet, printers, and photocopiers; access to quiet and collaborative study rooms; access to study areas; access to interlibrary loan material; resetting student passwords to access myMDC accounts as well as access to course materials in the reserve collections.
The Kendall Campus library serves about 1,000 patrons per day.
“There are currently no other buildings facing this issue,” Mendieta said. “It is difficult to determine the exact date for the mold development, but since a limited number of books were affected, however, some had to be thrown away.”
