The countdown has begun for the Dalton Regional Library to reopen after more than two months of renovations designed to prepare the facility for the rapidly changing 21st century.
Patrons will see changes above, below, and in front of them when the library opens its doors again on Monday after the first phase of SPLOST-funded renovations is completed.
Only the main floor will be able to reopen next week, though, as work will continue on the lower level that houses the Learning and Technology Training Center (computer lab), with that section expected to resume operations in January.
Since Oct. 1, crews have been busy. For example, new ceiling tiles have been installed to erase the old stains that once dotted the ceiling, the frayed carpet has been replaced with a revolutionary new flooring product from a local company, and many of the book shelves have been shortened about three feet to open up the space visually and show off once-overlooked architectural features of the building.
Even members of the library staff have pitched in to help with some of the work.
“The SPLOST has been a great thing for this library. It’s allowed us to catch up on some of the repairs that the building has needed for a while,” Darla Chambliss, library director, said during a recent tour of the facility.
The extra penny sales tax approved by voters in March allocates $500,000 for the library, but Ms. Chambliss has also been able to secure several matching grants that will allow a total of about $1 million worth of work to be done when all is said and done.
“Our charge to everybody on the staff in this project was we’re going to try to stretch those dollars as far as we can,” Ms. Chambliss said, “so that for the smallest investment, we want the biggest payoff and we want to really change the library user’s experience and enhance it and make it better. So from the minute you get out of your car and come into this public library, your experience is going to be better and you get what you need and we’re able to serve you better.”
The first thing patrons will probably notice when they enter the library is that the circulation desk has been relocated to its original location next to the main entrance.
“The circulation desk was a little confusing before,” said Jessica Miles, assistant director. “When people used to come into the library, they didn’t always know which way to go because the desk was off to the right side. The new location will give the library staff the opportunity to greet them and direct them appropriately.”
Immediately behind the circulation desk will be the staff workroom, which swapped locations with the teen room. The new location will allow workers to see virtually all of the main level of the library through the large windows.
The teen room aims to provide young people with a space dedicated just to them.
“Teens are a very different type of group,” Ms. Miles said. “They’re usually more tech-centric, and our teens here especially are. They like games - they like video games, so they almost need their own area, they really do. They’re typically going to be a little bit louder than the regular clientele, but that’s okay. Our goal is to carve out a space just for the teens so that they have a place they can come where they’re not going to have to shoo out little kids or adults. It’s a space just for them. It even has cooler furniture, and they also get computers to do school work on.”
Younger patrons weren’t ignored, either. The story pit area for children has been updated “to make it more colorful, a more kid-friendly type area,” Ms. Miles said.
Former library users will also notice more seating areas, notably to the left of the main entrance between the now-shorter book shelves and the genealogy center, where couches, chairs, and tables will provide a place “to sit down and have time to look through a book or work on a laptop,” Ms. Miles said.
To navigate through the main level of the library, everyone will be walking on a new flooring surface from J&J that has the staff excited about its beauty, maintenance, and long-term durability.
“It’s called Kinetics and is sold as a solution to those who want hard flooring but perhaps don’t want that surface; they want the sound absorbency and the shock absorption of carpet,” Ms. Chambliss said. “But this new product doesn’t absorb odors or stain like carpet sometimes does. It’s also a recycled product, it’s green, it’s LEED-certified.”
Ms. Chambliss went to a nearby sink, ran water into a cup, and then poured it onto the floor. The water immediately puddled on top of the product, and she was able to wipe it off easily with a paper towel.
“It’ll be easy for us to clean up spills,” she said. “We’ve also got attic stock so we can take pieces up and replace them if we ever need to. I don’t know exactly what it’s made out of, but apparently it’s indestructible!”
The new flooring replaces the worn carpet that had frayed in spots and become a safety hazard.
In fact, making the building as safe as possible for patrons using the SPLOST funds was the main goal of the Library Board, Ms. Chambliss said.
“What they told us was to make the building safe No. 1,” Ms. Chambliss said, “and then repair it so it lasts and serves the public for a long time, and then do what we could to make it look better.”
The building has been completely inspected by the state fire marshal, including the Learning Technology & Training Center on the lower level.
“The technology center was originally storage space so it was not properly coded and had not been approved for high capacity use,” Ms. Chambliss said. “Well, it sees 200 people a day now so we wanted the state fire marshal to look at it. He had a few suggestions to improve safety, and we followed all his suggestions and made those corrections.”
To make sure the library serves its patrons as effectively as possible, Ms. Chambliss has charged Miles with looking five years out and trying to figure out what they might need to be offering patrons by then.
“It’s the infrastructure mainly – like adding network cables and making sure we can get the best powered Internet through our building as possible,” Ms. Miles said, “so we’re talking about potentially upgrading some of our old wiring to make it where it is compatible with technology that is not yet come….”
“…but will in 30 minutes,” Ms. Chambliss jokingly interjected.
“That’s the scary part – the way technology moves so quickly,” she added, “so Jess is not only assistant director but also our director of emergent technologies.”
Library officials once hoped to have the first phase of work completed in a month, but they soon realized that the scope of the project would require longer.
“I knew closing their library would be tough for our patrons,” said Ms. Chambliss, who has been director for about six months, “and I knew that because this library is different from some other libraries. When I was here for my job interview and pulled into the parking lot, I thought they must be having a special program because there were so many cars. Then the next time I came, the parking lot was full again. I thought, ‘Dang, they must have a lot of programs!’”
Actually, Ms. Chambliss soon found out that the library offers so many services that it’s always a hotbed of activities, including the technology lab in the basement that serves 200 to 300 patrons a day, the very popular genealogy section, and a variety of classes offered by library staff on everything from how to stay safe using Facebook to how to use Excel. The Friends of the Library also has a popular area in the basement where books are sold at very low prices once a month to provide more funds for the library.
“We’ve got people of all ages on our staff, so they offer us a chance to find out what people of all demographics want from their library,” Ms. Chambliss said. “Plus we’ve been talking to educators, young parents, grandparents to get their suggestions, too.”
The second phase of the renovations will come next year but fortunately won’t require the building to be closed. Included in that phase will be a major expansion of the genealogy section, which will just require that area to be roped off from the public. The parking lot will be expanded, the crumbling sidewalks will be replaced, a reading porch for the public will be built on a neglected area, and a larger sign visible from all nearby streets will be installed.
As Ms. Chambliss concluded, “This is a nice town, and it needs a nice library.”