PORT HADLOCK — After five months in a temporary location, the Jefferson County Library will close next Monday, May 13, and begin moving collections into its newly renovated space.
“This is a more civic space, a more grand space, than what we had before,” said library Director Ray Serebrin.
“These changes give the building more dynamism and light.”
After the temporary space at the back of a strip mall at 51 Colwell St. closes, the bookmobile will provide the library’s only service until the reopening une 3 in the renovated area at 620 Cedar Ave.
A grand opening celebration is scheduled from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. June 9.
The grand opening party will feature Harmonica Pocket, the Chimacum High School Jazz Band, Jim Nyby and the Unexpected Brass Band, and Franco Bertucci and James Porter of Locust Street Taxi.
The $700,000 renovation of the library turned out to be less ambitious than the original proposal, a $9 million bond-financed expansion that was defeated by voters in August 2011.
The revised plan, announced in May 2012, scaled down expectations but still provided a significant improvement over the old space, library officials said.
“In the past, our layouts weren’t used effectively, and it made it hard for the customers,” said Associate Director Meredith Wagner.
“We have maximized the space in order to improve the customer experience.”
The footprint of the building, which totals about 11,000 square feet, hasn’t changed, aside from a 500 square foot “punch-out,” but several renovations have made it appear larger.
The Rotary Club of East Jefferson County donated and built a new exterior bookmobile shed, which freed up the area previously used to park the mobile at one end of the building.
A wall was removed, and offices were relocated into what once was a garage to expand the main collections room.
Once the shelving and old lighting fixtures were removed, the space opened up, allowing the redesign of resources, exposing wooden pillars that were often unnoticed by patrons.
“We uncovered the bones of the building,” Serebrin said.
“It imitated a lot of Northwest architecture which has a longhouse feel, and we got rid of everything that obstructed the view.
“Before you couldn’t see the skylights.”
Before the renovation, the shelves were attached at right angles to the pillars, obstructing them.
The new design places the shelves at an angle, allowing access to the skylights.
The new shelves will hold fewer volumes than what was replaced, but on-site storage will allow immediate access to catalogue items that don’t fit on the shelf.
The library will have separate children, teen, fiction, non-fiction and media areas along with several small meeting places where people can interact.
The power structure is also improved. Electrical outlets will be on every desk and on a “laptop bar,” replacing the previous power strip and extension cord motif.
“A big part of our business comes from people who come in with their own device and use the place for reading, research or to use our broadband and want a social place to use what they already have,” Serebrin said.
“We are also going to create little zones of tranquility because there are still people who think that a library should have some amount of quiet somewhere.”
The nonfiction area will continue to use the Dewey Decimal System but with some revisions.
One shelving area will group books by topic in a less restrictive manner than with Dewey, including all the books concerning subjects like Northwest culture and pet care.
The main stacks will be sorted by numbers from .000 to .999 but will include small signs describing the topic so people don’t need to know the categories in advance or refer to the catalogue.
“This is totally obvious, but libraries have been less obvious than they should be,” Serebrin said.
If the 2011 bond had passed, the renovated library would last well into the future, while this iteration will meet needs for five to seven years, Wagner said.
“We don’t see this as being long-term,” she said.
“We are addressing what we need to provide good service, decreasing the crowding, improving the lighting and improving our efficiencies along with some maintenance requirements.
“It’s not everything we needed, but it does address a lot of the issues.”
Service hours at the remodeled library will remain the same: from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 360-385-6544 or visit www.jclibrary.info.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
