New teen space, meeting rooms part of $120K construction project

More meeting space and an improved area dedicated to teenagers are among the major changes coming to the Niles District Library in a $120,000 renovation project that began late last week.

Nancy Studebaker, library director, said the project is expected to be completed by middle of the summer. She doesn’t expect patrons will be disrupted during the construction project, but said the library might have to close for a couple days.

“If we do it will be to move books and other things, but we haven’t made a decision yet,” she said.

It is the first medium-sized or large renovation project the library has had since it underwent a major renovation in the late 1990s.

Studebaker said the project is being funded entirely through the following trust funds:

• Barbara and Richard Strauss

• Gloria Walters

• Marjorie Larson

During the project, the fiction area and teen area will be flip-flopped. A brand new enclosed meeting room will be added to the new teen area along with extra lounge seating.

“It will be primarily for teens, but we will use it in the same way we do the community room and board room,” Studebaker said. “When it is not being used by teens it can be used by groups that want to meet in the library, which we’ve had a lot more of in the last few years.”

The youth service desk will also be moved in between the children and teen areas.

Two new meeting rooms will be installed in what was once the reference area.

“There won’t be any reduction in the (reference) collection, it’s just moving things around at this point,” Studebaker said.

The circulation area will also be changed. The current circulation desk will be blocked off to provide additional workspace for library staff on the main floor.

“They have become very, very cramped,” Studebaker said. “Circulation has gone up around 20 percent since that space was created in the late ‘90s.”

A new circulation desk will be installed in front of the current circulation desk.

“It will be much smaller because whoever is sitting there will only be doing circulation instead of 10 things all at once,” Studebaker said.

The information and computer lab desks will be combined into one area near the computer lab.

Studebaker said the renovation project was driven by a desire to create a dedicated space for teens, solve overcrowding in the circulation area and provide more meeting space for patrons.

Library staff worked with students at the University of Notre Dame to create project ideas before hiring Library Design Associates to design the project.