For the first time ever, Stanford Law School will offer its students 24-hour access to its library. This round-the-clock schedule is just one of the goals of a $2.7 Million summer face-lift of the second floor of the Robert Crown Law Library, which will also provide cutting-edge collaboration areas for students and library staff.

Once renovated, half of the second floor will house a “24- hour library”—available to law students only via their university ID cards—that will include a spacious reading room with floor-to-ceiling windows; a collaboration room equipped with computers, scanners, and other tools; and a computer classroom for joint study and project work. The other half of the floor will feature a new, consolidated work area for library staff members.

Current library hours are 8 a.m. to midnight.

“This will give our students the opportunity to be here whenever they need and for as long as they want—in a comfortable, well-equipped environment,” says Paul Lomio, director of the law library and lecturer in law, who adds that the renovation recognizes that students use the library not only to study but to work together on cases and publications.

By reducing the number of books held on site and consolidating staff offices, 42 new seats will be added to the second floor of the library. Lomio acknowledges that much research material is now available online and therefore unnecessary on the shelves. And there has been a happy recipient of some discarded items: 36,711 books have been donated to La Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey, a law school in Monterrey, Mexico.

Lastly, the project—one-third of which is being funded by the university—will help to address an interesting dilemma: the library’s popularity with students from across campus.

“The renovation of the first floor of the library three years ago was so successful that it was becoming overcrowded. We either had to find more room or ban non-law students from the library,” says Frank Brucato, senior associate dean of administration and CFO at the law school, who notes the move to accommodate all students, regardless of affiliation, reflects the ethos of the university.