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Library Gets a Face Lift
Library expansion under way
By Tiffanie Blackmon
Lewisville’s public library is getting a little more than just a face lift.
“When I was growing up, libraries were mainly just books,” said Gary Davis, Internal Services Manager for City of Lewisville who is heading the library expansion project. “Now, you have to consider the internet and audio and video.”
Ann Loggins, Library Services Manager at Lewisville Public Library, said she and her staff conducted two different studies to best determine the needs of the public based on the new library facilities. One of those focus groups was broken up into several demographics of the city being senior citizens, school students, parents and teachers, business owners in Old Town Lewisville, home-schoolers and the general public.
What those groups most needed were study rooms and conference rooms, an adequate amount of public computers and quick and easy access to library materials.
With that state-of-the-art framework in mind, must come state-of-the-art facilities which has become the premise of the goals for rebuilding the city’s existing public library facilities.
Davis said the current facility is simply too small now that the city’s population has nearly doubled.
The current library facilities are 24,000 square feet and once work is completed on re-working the building, it dimensions on the building will have tripled to just under 80,000 square feet which will encompass a two-story add-on.
The existing library will be solely used for a children’s library with multiple programming rooms and a dome affect along the ceiling with special backlighting to make it an exciting place for kids.
“This is really going to be awesome,” Davis said.
In addition, to the new children’s library, there will separate facilities for adults and teens, each developed to best suit that demographic for which it is intended. The teen’s library will be best suited for studying and research with computers, study tables and quiet rooms and the adult library center will feature a computer training facility where residents can come and learn how to better utilize the functionality of today’s computer systems.
“One thing we’ve learned in the last five to seven years is that library use is actually going up,” said Ann Loggins, Library Services Manager at the Lewisville Public Library. “Teens are finding there are all kinds of things here like the internet, DVD’s and CD’s and we are excited about that increased usage of public libraries.”
In keeping up with the state-of-the-art framework for the development of the city’s new library center, the city staff has worked to incorporate a radio frequency identification system into the library’s capabilities which would allow library management to track any materials within the libraries collection at any time. The RFID system would also allow residents with library cards to check books in and out of the facility by simply scanning their cards and materials, which will also allow city residents to call in orders for books or other materials for scheduled drive-thru pickups at the library.
Loggins said what that sort of technological availability does for a facility like theirs is to allow them to deploy library staff to other necessary duties in managing the library.
The total budget for the project rounded out at $11 million. The bulk of that budget, $8.8 million, will go for construction costs and $760,000 will go toward architectural and engineering costs. The RFID system will cost the city $230,000 and the library’s security system will cost in the ballpark of $50,000 or so based on preliminary estimates.
Fixtures and furniture will cost from $850,000 to $900,000. Davis said he realizes that amount is expensive in terms of purchasing furniture but that what they have purchased is of high value because it is intended to be used for quite some time.
“We probably won’t ever have to buy it again,” Davis said.
But for now, workers are making way on the library’s addition, hoping to have that portion of the facility done by September or October of this year. Once that portion of the construction is completed, the second phase of the project will begin with remodeling the existing facilities to be completed by February or March of 2007.
“We tried to blend the exterior with what’s there but give the new addition its own identity,” Davis said. “We will use the same exterior finish with a more modern presentation.”
City library services and city staff plan to have a grand re-opening of the library once renovations are complete. No date has yet been set for those plans.
Contact Tiffanie Blackmon at 972-538-2115 or tiffanie.blackmon@scntx.com
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