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Library booking a new home
2/11/2009 12:28:11 PM
By Hope Brumbach
Splash Editor
Profiles:
LL Municipal Library
When Library Director Pamela Mogen stepped into the empty warehouse on Mission Avenue, she had trouble picturing the finished product lined with bookshelves.
Months later, the city's vision has transformed that industrial space with a cement floor into a welcoming, modern library in Liberty Lake.
The Liberty Lake Municipal Library will open to the public March 2 with a host of new features in more than 8,500 square feet - nearly triple the size of the library's current location.
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Library delays opening The public will have to wait a little longer to get a peek at the Liberty Lake Municipal Library's new quarters. After announcing last week that the library would close this week and reopen Feb. 17, the move-in date now has been delayed to March 2. The city has a punch list of more than 100 items to review with the contractor, Planning and Community Development Director Doug Smith said Monday. The library will close the week prior to the March 2 reopening at 23123 E. Mission Ave. The Liberty Lake Police Department, which will occupy the other side of the building, is about a month behind the library, Smith said. |
This will be the second home for the library, which first began as a volunteer effort in 2001, when community members formed the Liberty Lake Library Council to offer library service closer to home. The community donated thousands of books and volunteers staffed the library, which operated out of the Liberty Square Building on Meadowwood Lane. In 2003, the Council asked the city to take over the library when it became too much for volunteers to handle.
"Five years later, we're finally in our own facility with room to grow and a facility that looks and feels like a modern library," said Mogen, the library's first director, hired in 2003.
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Splash photos by Hope Brumbach
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Decorative lighting hangs over the service counters, and large "cloud"-like ornamental structures are suspended from the ceiling, designating different sections of the library.
At the front of the library, patrons are greeted with an information desk and circulation counter. The library staff will have an entire room for cataloguing and book processing - compared to the closet they now use, Mogen said. The library employs 10 people, she said.
A reading area with comfy seating is off to the side of the entrance, where best sellers and movie selections will be easily accessible. A bank of computers will be available for patron use for surfing the Internet or searching the library's offerings. The library now offers four computers for public use; the new facility will have six plus two more for book searches.
A quiet room is tucked in the corner with plans for newspaper and magazine reading material. A study room is next door. The library also offers restrooms for men and women and a family bathroom in the kids' area. A public meeting room, complete with a refrigerator and dishwasher, will be available for community use by reservation.
The main adult area is full of bookshelves - 30 percent more space than the library has now, Mogen said. The library currently offers about 24,000 volumes.
The Liberty Lake Youth Commission and other teens designed a young adult area, and the library accommodated those requests except for the color scheme, Mogen said. The area will offer an "Internet café" with laptops and bistro-type seating with high tables, booths and squishy beanbag chairs.
"The whole idea is to make a comfy place, a hangout place," Mogen said.
That area flows into a juvenile section that also features comfy seating.
The kids' area, in a room of its own, will be decorated with a jungle theme, complete with pint-sized furniture and special "bins" to hold books. They'll be organized by type - such as dragon or princess books - and also by author, Mogen said. The boxes for books allow children to "paw through them to see the covers," Mogen said.
"We're excited to see the public's reaction and celebrate this wonderful facility together," Mogen said.
Plans for a spruced-up front entrance for the library - with a pergola covering a plaza and cascading flowers - are on hold for now, Planning and Community Development Director Doug Smith said.
| Help support the new library
Cookbooks and used book sales are some of the ways the Friends of the Liberty Lake Municipal Library are helping raise money for computers and furnishings for the library's new home. With increased patronage and additional space, the library needs more computers to serve residents, said Nancy Ashworth, president of the Friends of the Liberty Lake Municipal Library. The library group participated in a book fair at Barnes and Noble last fall and held a used book sale last month. The group also has an ongoing book sale in the entryway of the children's library, which will be moved to the new location on Mission Avenue, Ashworth said. The Friends also are selling cookbooks, called "Real Men Can Cook,"with recipes from Liberty Lake residents and surrounding communities. The cookbooks can be purchased at the library or from a Friends member. Once money is raised for one or more computers, the group will consider purchasing magazine shelves and chairs. Donations can be sent to Friends of the Liberty Lake Municipal Library, P.O. Box 427, Liberty Lake, WA 99019, or deposited in the donations box by the children's library. Donations are tax deductible. For more information, contact Elizabeth Caldwell at ecaldwell@allstate.com or Valorie Marschall at 869-0813. – Hope Brumbach |
Last summer, the city agreed to purchase the vacant 27,000-square-foot building, formerly home to Northern Technologies, on Mission Avenue and remodel it. The move was "Plan B" after voters rejected a bond to build a community center and library.
City officials said the facility is the long-term plan for the police department and an interim solution for the library, which may be in its new home for 10 years.
The renovation is coming in on budget, city officials said.
A formal open house likely will be planned for May, Smith said.
Profiles:
LL Municipal Library
New location
23123 E. Mission Ave.
Former location
1421 N. Meadowwood Lane, Suites 130 and 140
Size of new facility
More than 8,500 feet, nearly triple the current size
New features
Seating areas, a quiet room, study room, young adult corner, juvenile reading area, kids' room with "reading bins," public meeting room, staff break room
Opening date
March 2
Web site
www.libertylakewa.gov/library/
Number of patron visits in 2008
52,291
Increase from previous year
27 percent