Starbucks in Farber Library reopened Tuesday after being closed for several days while management awaited parts for plumbing repairs, Sodexo Resident District Manager Michael Reilly wrote to The Brandeis Hoot in an email. Any time that Starbucks is closed, including any time last week, Sodexo has been able to “re-deploy” team members to other locations on campus so that they could still work, according to Reilly.
Vice President of Campus Operations Lois Stanley emailed the Brandeis community on Oct. 18 saying that the Farber Library, including the Starbucks Cafe and Sound and Image Media Studios (SIMS), would be closed on Oct. 19 while repairs and mitigation efforts took place. University Librarian Matthew Sheehy emailed the university on Oct. 21 that major damage took place to the library and that part of Farber Library floor 3 and all of Farber Library floor 4 would be closed for the next two weeks while repairs took place. Reilly wrote to The Hoot that the Starbucks cafe’s closure, however, was unrelated to the clean water pipe leak in Farber Library that caused the library to flood on Oct. 18. He said that the closure was due to infrastructure work that needed to be done for the location.
The water in the library has been cleaned up and the carpets sanitized, but as of Oct. 21, there was still moisture that was being dried with fans and dehumidifiers.
Almost 11 thousand books were taken off the shelves to be freeze dried to prevent further water damage, according to Sheehy’s email to the community on Oct. 21.
Director of Public Services Brenda Cummings previously told The Hoot in an email that the leak mainly impacted the Fine Arts Collection, but it was unclear how bad the damage was.
“The leak impacted materials located on Farber level 4, which houses our Fine Arts collection,” Cummings wrote to The Hoot. “The subject areas most impacted were art history, architecture, and architectural history. Small portions of the subjects sculpture, print media, and painting were also impacted. These collections were not specifically part of our rare or special collections, however, art books tend to be more expensive than books in other parts of the general collection.”
Sheehy said that the library has adjusted OneSearch to allow requests for materials from the affected areas.
