Doors reopen Monday

Anyone who has ever done any remodeling knows it can be compared, in many ways, with giving birth. Once it is finished and over with, the pain and the agony and the screaming are forgotten because the outcome is so beautiful.

Naturally, a living, unique child cannot be compared with a new kitchen or a redecorated bedroom. Still, remodeling has its own agonies and, eventually, its lovely results. In fact, an overwhelming majority of first-time remodelers are actually willing to do it again. Americans spend more than $230 billions annually remodeling their homes!

So despite of the dust, dirt, noise, delays, unmet deadlines, cost overruns, and general disruption of one’s life, we seem to think it’s worth it.

The Central Library is now at the end of its two-week remodel. Though it has meant that the doors are closed to the public, it’s all going to be worth it come Monday when the doors reopen to the spruced up and reorganized library.

The essential work being done is the re-carpeting of the entire library. After nearly 12 years of approximately a half a million people a year walking into the library, the carpet has taken a beating. No home has a half a million people marching through it ? even though it might seem like it at times. But for any floor, 12 years is 12 years.

Since the library was going to be disrupted anyway, it was decided that this would provide a wonderful opportunity to use the down time to do some rearranging and reorganizing. This means some new furniture and moving some things around.

The children’s collection and the adult collection on the second floor will be reconfigured to make browsing the collections and locating specific items much easier. New and rearranged signage will also make it easier for library patrons to find what they’re looking for.

Upstairs, all of the adult nonfiction and biographies will be on one side of the building and all of the fiction together on the other. In addition, some of the individual study tables are being replaced with comfortable seating.

The children’s room has been rearranged so that the children have an area with audio-visual material and comfy seating. The children’s reading will now be laid out in progressive succession of reading level. They, too, have put their fiction on one side and nonfiction on the other.

In addition, the Reference Desk has been redesigned to open it up and make access to the librarians easier and less daunting.

So pop into the Central Library on Monday to check out the new look.