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PRINCETON: Renovations under consideration for library

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The leadership of the Princeton Public Library is interested in reconfiguring the second floor of the 10-year-old library building, a move that is aimed at creating more work space for the public.
    The analysis comes as part of a review the library staff has been doing on how to meet the changing needs of a community in which 2,400 to 2,500 people use the library daily. In particular, customers are increasingly saying they want more quiet places to work, said library director Leslie Burger last week.
    “Libraries are changing and need to be dynamic in how they respond to their community,” she said from her third-floor office at the roughly 55,000 square-foot-library.
    The second floor is the natural place to make any changes since it is where most public access computers and all quiet reading rooms are located. Ms. Burger said that is the “core” of the library for adults, also home to the nonfiction and reference collections.
    An architect was hired to come up with a concept plan that the library board of trustees will consider, Ms. Burger said. That preliminary work is expected to take until the end of the year.
    If it happens, the renovation would take advantage of technology advancements in the past decade that have made obsolete the traditional reference section at a library. Space ordinarily reserved for encyclopedias and other reference books can be used for some other purpose.
    Ms. Burger said the library is buying fewer reference books but still provides that content through digital access, which is more up-to-date and current and available to card holders 24 hours a day through the library website.
    This year marked the 10-year-anniversary of the opening a modern Robert Hillier-designed library building at the site of the old library. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people walk through its doors, a place that Ms. Burger wanted to make as a destination for the community.
    “When we designed this library, we designed it so it was a very active place where conversations were encouraged and where you could sit and talk,” she said.
    Now, she said customers say they want quiet spaces where they can work, either alone or in small groups. As part of that, the library also needs more power outlets to accommodate all the personal electronic devices people bring with them to the library.
    In addition, the library is looking for more program space to have events, small group study and computer classes.
    Ms. Burger said the second-floor project would be paid through a mix of public and private dollars.
    “We don’t have a firm cost estimate right now, so we’re trying to pin down the scope of the project,” she said.
    Princeton Council President Bernard P. Miller said he was surprised to find the project in the list of municipal capital projects for the next five years, with a $1.25 million amount attached to it. He said Ms. Burger never mentioned it when she went before council this year.
        “It came as a complete surprise,” Mr. Miller said.Mayor Liz Lempert, a member of the library board of trustees, deflected a question about whether she should have briefed council members ahead of time. She said the project had been floated only recently and it is “still being discussed.” She added she is “on the fence” about it.
    It is unclear if Mr. Miller would have to recuse himself from any vote involving the library, since his wife, Ruth, is a library trustee. 