Willoughby-Eastlake libraries make progress on renovations – News-Herald.com

Progress is being made in the renovation projects underway at the Willowick and Willoughby branches of the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library.

Contractors report that they are on budget and about 45 percent finished. They are also on schedule for a late May completion date, said library Executive Director Rick Werner.

A discovery on the upper level of the Willoughby branch led to a slight change in design, when contractors uncovered a small piece of history one of the original brick exterior walls of the library.

The original structure of the Willoughby branch was one of the many Carnegie Libraries built across the country between the 1880s and 1920s.

Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate at the turn of the century, provided start-up funding to communities that were able to sustain a library on their own after he made the initial investment, said Willoughby Library Manager Debbie Mullen.

Willoughby was one of those fortunate communities and our library was built in 1909, she said.

Many of the Carnegie characteristics were lost as the structure of the library evolved over time to meet the need of patrons.

Renovations in the early 1960s to make the library compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act led to the loss of the grand stairway and the traditional Carnegie roof, Werner said.

Without adding much time to the work schedule or affecting the budget, contractors have found a way to incorporate the wall into the final design.

This is actually a wall from the original structure and its kind of neat to feature that in the library, Werner said. Its pretty well preserved from having been covered by the additions. It hasnt been weathered or anything, so we are going to leave this wall brick.

The wall is on the upper level, where the remodeled and expanded children and young adults sections will be located.

The previous young adult/teen section was not very big and it was stuck out in the middle of the rest of the library, Werner said.

Our experience with teens is that they like to have their own space and like to be by themselves, he said. We want them by themselves, but we want to keep an eye on everything going on in the library.

The architect designed a glass-enclosed teen area which will be complete with a couple of gaming systems for young adults to use.

For the first time, the library will have a space completely dedicated to teens, which is a really important group for libraries to reach out to, Werner said.

With the newly renovated teen section, the library might be able to expand its programming geared toward teens, Mullen said.

The library, which is mostly landlocked and unable to be expanded out in any direction, is looking to use the space they have in the most efficient way.

Basically, this renovation project is re-allocation of space in a way that makes more sense, Mullen said.

In addition to vastly expanding the children and young adults sections, the libraries in both Willowick and Willoughby will be increasing the number of computers available for public use, with Willoughby actually doubling the number of computers it currently has.

The buildings will be wi-fi-enabled for patrons who bring in their own devices and will have plenty of charging stations for patrons to use for their electronics, Werner said.

The one thing that the library is not expanding on is the number of self-checkout kiosks.

One of the things we did think about as we were planning both renovations is that we heard from the community and our staff that people actually like to deal with people, Werner said. Whereas some people like dealing with the self-checkout, there is still a very large group of people who like the interaction and the people on our staff like to work with the public.

The libraries realize they are going to take a hit on circulation this year as they dont have everything accessible, but, according to Werner, thats one of the prices to pay as renovations take place.

The goal is to be ready before schools let out and summer programming begins.

The library is on budget for renovations, with $2.2 million, including a contingency if a few things cost more than the budget allowed, Werner said.

The public can view renovation updates on the W-E Public Library website at http://www.we247.org, which includes a link to its Facebook page with updates.

Our board is pleased, Werner said. Our board is very focused on making sure that we finish this in a quick and timely manner and on budget, and right now we are accomplishing both of those goals.