County officials describe floor plan for renovations
By Mary Ellen Day, Special Writer
Manville Public Library joined the Somerset County Library system about two years ago and last week an open house at the library shared exciting news with the community.
Keith McCoy and Brian Auger, the top administrators in the county library system, spoke to the community members. Mr. Auger said the purpose of the evening was to "show off some of the improvements that have been made to the Manville library in the two years that is has joined the system. Going through the circulation statistics I know that the circulation has more than doubled since July 2012. We are now circulating close to 40,000 items out of this building and more people are finding it all the time and that is a good thing," he said.
Mr. McCoy explained, "The Manville library is going to be the demonstration project for our Community Commons Concept, which came out of our strategic plan. One of the of the things that the staff and public identified was that they would like all of our branch to have more flexible space for quiet studies and some other spaces.
Innovations may remind patrons more of Starbucks or Barnes and Noble than a study hall.
A team from the library interviewed architects, space planners and interior designers and got some ideas. They have developed a floor plan at Manville and will start implementing it upon the county’s OK for construction.
"Manville has the gift of space and that is some of the reason that we are starting it here. Manville has great space and it wasn’t being all utilized here," Mr. McCoy said.
Some of the areas that will be done will include two aisles coming into the library, one going straight back to the children’s section. That will mean a redesign of the circulation desk. The other path will angle back along the stack pillars. An area will have some soft seating and display shelves for the books and vending machines will be right in front with snacks and coffee. Mr. McCoy said there may even be some bistro tables.
The magazines will be housed in different containers with the most current issue in front and the rest behind. The children’s area will be designed and there will be a teen area created by the windows.
"The teens like to have their own space but not so set off," he said. There will be some softer chairs with student tables and some large comfy chairs.
The office space will be rearranged to accommodate a local history room in front with a table and maybe a computer so people can access the information. A new wall will separate the room will be the director’s office for branch director Ed Smith. His office in the rear of the building will now house the marketing department for the county library system.
All of the work will be starting soon with the wall out up in the history room/director’s office being the first step. The work will be done in phases. Furniture needs to be purchased this year and next. They are still researching vendors for the vending machines. The only construction is creating a wall and a doorway with the rest basically rearranging the library.
"I would say by the end of the year, these changes will be mostly along the way," said Mr. McCoy.