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Concordia University doesn’t have a new library, but it has the next best thing.

The Webster Library, its main library, has undergone a complete head-to-toe makeover, a three-year $37-million renovation that will finally be officially unveiled on Friday morning. The library took over one more floor in the J.W. McConnell Building just south of the Hall Building on de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Now occupying four of the building 10 floors, it has 3,300 seats, up from 1,300 prior to the renovations.

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There are nine large reading rooms, 19 group study rooms, around one million hard-copy volumes (including books, CDs, vinyl LPs), and 1.5 million titles including all of the electronic material. There are 21 kilometres of books. The library has 120 employees, including 40 librarians. When it originally opened in 1992, Concordia had only 25,000 students. Today, it has 48,000 students.

“It’s a beautiful space, a joyful space,” said Guylaine Beaudry, vice-provost, digital strategy and university librarian. “It doesn’t have to cost more to bring beauty to a public place.”