Students, faculty and staff helped cut a long ribbon that snaked throughout the entire building on opening day.

The opening of the new Roscoe O. Bonisteel Library marked such an achievement for Interlochen that it received not one but two special ceremonies.

Academy students, faculty and staff celebrated the opening on April 4 when they returned from Spring Break, cutting a long ribbon that wound throughout the facility; the building’s official dedication occurred on May 6, and was attended by more than 100 people who helped make the building possible, from donors to architects to faculty and staff.

The new home for Interlochen’s academic and music libraries is in the former site of JVS gymnasium, which was split in half horizontally to create two floors.

Fred Fennell working in the Interlochen Music Library in 1935. Frederick and Elizabeth Ludwig Fennell are the namesakes for the new Music Library.

The Bonisteel Library was filled with people and "wow’s" on opening day, April 4, 2006.

Supporters fill the new library during the dedication on May 6, 2006.

The project also included expanding and winterizing "The Shed," to be used for rehearsal and recreation space, and rebuilding Grunow for use during the summer.

President Jeffrey Kimpton noted that Roscoe Bonisteel’s original hope was that Interlochen would build an observatory and planetarium. After Bonisteel passed away in 1972, the money for the observatory sat untouched as the library concept began to emerge.

"Perhaps Roscoe Bonisteel knew us better than we think," Kimpton said. "His desire for a planetarium and observatory has really been fulfilled, for this building lets us observe ourselves, our learning, our achievement, our community, in a new way.

"We have forever redefined the academic and artistic life of Interlochen by creating an observatory that helps us see our past and our future, a place where students can observe their own growth, and we theirs."

About the Roscoe O. Bonisteel Library:
- Opening day: April 4, 2006, during National Library Week.
- Total project cost: $5.2 million, which included retrofitting of two other spaces on campus to accommodate activities that occurred in the former JVS gymnasium.
- Size: 28,000 square feet, occupying two floors.
- The combined collections occupy more than two linear miles of shelf space.
- Enhanced data services include a wireless computer network that can accommodate up to 200 users, closedcircuit television and a multi-media presentation room with interactive "Smart Board."
- Home to the Greenleaf Collection of historic music instruments.

Frederick & Elizabeth Ludwig Fennell Music Library:
- More than 95,000 items in the collection, including:
   - 17,000 scores for conductors
   - Performing sets that include 37,500 for chamber ensembles; 8,150 for orchestra; 6,500 for band;
     4,650 for choir; and 965 for jazz ensemble. More than 10,000 CDs and LPs
- The new library has 8,989 feet of shelving.
- 70% of the collection is on automated high-density shelving.

John W. & Charlene B. Seabury Academic Library:
- Approximately 27,000 books in the collection, with room for up to 36,000.
- 10,200 square feet - more than double the previous location.
- Magazines occupy 217 feet of shelving.
- 1,600 full-text magazines online, and databases including Grove Music Online and Grove Art Online.