The Clinton County Public Library has recently got a face lift and is what Librarian Margaret England believes is more adaptable for the public.
On Tuesday, March 25, the library will be hosting an open house for the public, and everyone is invited to stop by and see everything the library has to offer beginning around 10 a.m.
“We’ve been dreaming and planning for a long time and we finally got it to happen and it’s been amazing,” England said. “I think the really cool thing is the public’s reaction and they are actually using the space now. They are coming in and sitting in an easy chair and relaxing and reading”
England said several families are taking advantage of the new space.
“The mom will come in and sit and read a book while the kids do their own thing,” England said. “They use the outdoor space and they want to go outside and play. The outdoor space has been a huge blessing.”
Many of the changes in the main part of the library include adding different LED lights and installing ceiling fans in order to push the heat back down during the winter months.
“I’m curious to see how much it will change our electric bill,” England said.
In addition to the lighting and fans, a teen space was added into one of the rooms in order to provide a relaxing space for teenagers.
“We have brought in a DVD collection and all of the juvenile fiction and graphic novels are in here,” England said. “We’ve brought in comfortable seating for them, study tables and the chairs we bought are specifically for them. You can put backpacks under them.”
The teen space also has a partition in order to split the room or move them to the side to make the room bigger for whatever is necessary.
From the teen space room, there are doors to the new outside space with trex decking for seating and artificial turf. England said she will also purchase umbrellas to provide shade to the area during the warmer months.
“The best thing ever was a little boy came and he wanted to go outside,” England said. “He literally skipped from one wall to the other wall right through the grass. He was so happy and his mother wasn’t worried. It’s a contained area. Eventually I would like to have some more outdoor seating in the paver sections. This has been a major improvement for this area.”
The entire library was equipped with new lighting, including the children’s room. It also got a face lift with new paint and “caterpillar” seating to make it fun for the children.
The main space of the library is where the adult non-fiction and most of the audiobooks are housed.
More comfortable seating has been put in the main space, as well as a hexagon table to house computers for internet use.
In the back part of the library, an adult space has been made with comfortable seating and tables set up with scrabble and games or to use as a work space.
“Last week when people were out of electric, we had two people come in and use the rooms,” England said. “I think the public is proud of it. I hope we’ve done the county proud … I feel like we have.”
J&S Construction out of Cookeville, Tennessee, was hired to do most of the work, which included Albany’s own Colby Langford overseeing the project.
England said Deco Artchiture was also hired for some of the work and design which included more Albany natives in Kyle Choate and Zack McFall. Chris Ballenger, owner of Mountain View Nursery, did the outside work at the library.
“I was really happy we were able to use J&S Construction, because I really believe people who have grown up here really care about what happens in our county and they want to see things really nice for our county.”