Change is eternal...

You might notice that the Young Adult room feels a little more open now. We've removed some of the book spinners and have moved the nonfiction paperbacks to the shelves near the small PC room. The young adult paperbacks have been integrated in with the young adult hardcover books on the wall shelving around the room. You may continue to see some changes in layout and furniture in future months.

This construction blog was originally created to track the progress of the creation of our downstairs study room and staff workspace, as well as the reconfiguring of the Young Adult room. While this project has taken longer than we had hoped it would we do hope that this blog has proven to be useful. Recognizing that library construction is meant to be ongoing in a world where services and technology are always changing (as well as the fact that the library building itself can sometimes suffer from the problems related to old age) we will keep this blog live in order to keep you up-to-date on future construction in the library. The Staff Picks blog will resume its place on the bottom of the library homepage and this page will be accessible by choosing About the Library on the library website's table of contents. Thank you for tolerating our dust as we attempt to bring about constant improvement!

A light at the end of the tunnel!

'The YA room has been in disarray for seemingly forever while we waited for some special pieces for the shelving. The great news is that the shelving is now back up and we hope to have them filled sometime soon! In the meantime, we hope that you have found your way to the CDs downstairs and that you're enjoying the new private Hamil Room. If you haven't had a chance to book the room yet, please contact us so that we can provide you with your own group study space.

New shelving! Soon to be filled with books!

Coming soon: an expanded YA collection!

By now you might have noticed that the music CDs have been moved downstairs next to the new Hamil Conference Room. We are in the process of putting up shelving in the Young Adult Room, allowing us to offer more young adult books as well as other options for space utilization! It's a work in progress so be sure to check it out (and stay tuned here!)

Hamil Conference Room is now Open

The music CDs have been moved to the lower level and the Hamil Conference Room is now open to the public (see here for details). All that remains in this project is the addition of shelves (and reconfiguring of) the young adult area.

A new home for our music collection

With all the construction on our new conference and study rooms now essentially finished we can move on to the final phases of our project. If you visit the young adult area of the library (where adult paperbacks are shelved as well) you might notice some bare walls. This is because our music CD collection is being moved to its new home on the lower level, next to the new study room. We expect it to be finished in the next couple of days though it currently is in a state of disarray. What will happen to those walls that are bare in the young adult room? We look forward to adding an expanded young adult collection in the very near future!

Soon to be new music CD space!

Putting up the CD shelving.

Almost there...

If you've been near the back of the lower level then you may have noticed that the new meeting room is very close to completion. The heavy duty construction is all done and pending the arrival of furniture, a few construction tweaks and inspection we will be able to open it to the public. Our most recent issue of Excerpts (available here as a pdf) has more details about how the room will be used.

If you're curious about the open space next to the meeting room -where a table used to be - it will be the future home of our music cds. We are expecting to have the shelving set up in the near future and will update this blog when it's done!

Counter Productive

Many of you have probably seen the conference room that is progress in the lower level. If you haven't seen it recently you should go check it out, as it's starting to look like a real conference room! What you might not realize is that we're also making great progress on a staff meeting room, where library staff can meet and work in solitude. We've taken an old, dirty storage space and turned it into a useful, functioning part of the library. And now that we've had counters, cabinets and lights installed, it's looking like a very pleasant place to get things done!

Pleasant Under Glass

If you haven't taken a look at our new study room yet you might be surprised. We've started to put up the glass walls that encompass the space and it almost resembles a real room! If you have a chance to go down and check it out the next time you're in the library you should do so!

Look at these nice clean windows! No fingerprints please!

Soon to be a peaceful oasis on the lower level.

Tropical Winter Days

Despite one's best planning it's inevitable that there will be unforeseen problems with any construction project. Who could have predicted that the library's air conditioning would come in on January? We had temporarily removed a sink, leaving no place for the condensation water to flow except for the floor. Oh, well - it will dry up quickly and at least we were able to enjoy a touch of mild weather!

The perils of warm January days!

Walls!

The word of the day is walls! We're finally starting to see less destruction and more building as drywall is starting to cover some of the unsightlier parts of our new workroom and creating our new study room space. There may be times where we have to restrict access to parts of our lower level and occasionally there are some annoying work-related noises. But it's starting to look like something!!!

Soon to be a glass-enclosed study room.

The cds will be moved to this section.

It may not look like much yet but soon to be a staff space!

Article about library construction in Glencoe News

Make sure you check out the January 17th edition of the Glencoe News for a nice article about the construction at the library (also available online).

In the meantime, here's a peek at what used to be magazine storage space and will soon become a staff workroom:

Everything's Under Plastic Wrap

We're still open but it's starting to look a little more like a construction zone downstairs.

Lower Level Prep is Happening Now

Are you seeing some empty shelves and items on carts where they are not typically found? We're busy prepping the lower level for the construction project. We've moved the short story collection to the end of fiction upstairs and we've moved large print books to the end of their call number ranges. Both of these changes are permanent. Our music collection will move to the north side of this space, where short story collections and some large print had previously been housed while the new meeting room will be on the south side of this space.

Soon to be a meeting room

Soon to be where the CDs are found.

More future CD space

Watch This Space for Construction Updates!

The library wants to keep everyone informed as we proceed through a small construction project that will create a new small conference room on the lower level, as well as renovating a storage area to become a staff workroom.  In the space previously used for over-sized books, a glass-enclosed room will provide meeting space for four to six people. Additionally this area become the new location for the adult compact disc collection now located in the YA/Media room on the first floor.

The space previously used to shelve music CDs will become a larger area for the Young Adult collection of books, audiobooks, and magazines. This very popular collection contains materials selected for teen interests.

To try to contain dust, plastic sheeting will protect the construction area. As a result of their work, there will be times when access to the adult non-fiction collection will be available via elevator only. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of February.

Thanks to the Friends of the Library for helping to pay for this exciting improvement. Please consider joining the Friends and enabling us to continue to offer the services that you love!