Staff members in the Network and Telecommunications Services department will be moving across campus to Stewart Hall, along with other departments in Information Services.

Network and Telecommunications Services is currently located on the first floor of the library and provides all forms of networking on campus.

“Anytime you connect to the Kent network for anything — to go to the Internet, to go to banner — all that lies over the Kent State network, which we’re responsible for and provide,” said Thomas Beitl, manager of Network and Telecommunication Services.

Beitl said more than 140 people in Information Services will be moving to Stewart Hall, an abandoned residence hall, from several locations including the library and Moulton and Lincoln halls.

“It’s to kind of consolidate the staff into a single location,” Beitl said. “The other reasoning is that the space we’re occupying in some of these buildings, like the library, is really kind of prime real estate.”

When Information Services moves out of the first floor, the University Library Communications Office, which is currently located on the third floor of the library, will take its place.

Diana Sperko, marketing and communications director of University Libraries, said she and her staff will move to the first floor in order to create more space for the School of Library and Information Science.

“They’re expanding — the program is expanding too,” Sperko said. “They’ve got more students all the time, so they needed more space to accommodate everything.”

Sperko said library officials offered to give up the space when they heard Information Services was moving out of the first floor.

“We’re ready to move down there and be on the first floor, closer to where the action is,” Sperko said.

Other library departments moving to the first floor include library executives, the budget office and Statistical and Qualitative Software and Support Services.

Beitl expects the move will begin on March 1 at the earliest and continue into April.

Contact Leighann McGivern at [email protected].