Did you know that this fall we have booked more meeting rooms and events spaces than ever? The Library’s spaces team consists of just two people, Jennifer Lewis and Joshua Freeman, who coordinate and support each and every gathering in the library’s public spaces.

As of the end of October, the Library booked 445 meetings and 62 events during the fall 2024 semester. The small but mighty team executed a total number of 152 room setups and changeovers. That’s an average of about seven set ups and 32 meetings/events each week.

The Leon S. Peters Ellipse Gallery is by far the most popular event space in the building, having booked 34 events so far this academic year. The Ellipse is designed as a formal art gallery space for major exhibitions but has been booked more and more for events in recent years due to its central location and attractive ambience. The Table Mountain Rancheria Reading Room has also had an uptick of interest as an events space, but as it is designated by the Rancheria as a space for study and quiet reflection, events have to have special permission from campus leadership to use it. Events with ties to Indigenous groups are given the highest priority.

The increased interest in booking the Library’s spaces indicates a vibrant and exciting growth in in-person meetings and activities on campus, which the Library is proud to host. The fact that the Library is one of the few spaces on campus that offer their spaces for free contributes to their popularity.

Of course, that popularity means that the spaces in the Library are increasingly all booked up! We recommend that event planners and meeting schedulers book spaces as early as possible through 25Live for meeting rooms. Events in our galleries and reading rooms should also be planned well in advance — six months to a year is preferable — to ensure a full consideration of the request. As we have limited staff to sustain meetings and events, the Library administration must plan well in advance to ensure that we have the resources to offer our colleagues across campus.

If you would like to book meeting rooms for spring 2025, we recommend that you do so as soon as possible. To request an event space, also book the location in 25Live and then fill out a Campus Event Request form and send it to libraryevents@mail.fresnostate.edu to begin the process. This checklist is also available to help guide the planning process.