Elmwood Park Library officials plan to renovate the building’s layout to make it more kid-friendly.
“We actually don’t expect it to take longer than a few weeks, but we have to consider how we’re going to time things,” said Library Director Tiffany Verzani. “We don’t expect a big disruption of service.”
She said the reason for the planned second floor renovations are that the space is becoming more confining and harder to use as the library expands its collections. Specifically, they’ve been adding more digital media in their youth collection like DVDs, video games and music.
“As those things came and grew they were stored in different spots in the library,” she said. “We just don’t have a distinct place for those right now.”
Currently the library doesn’t have a spot for beginning readers and early readers to participate in free play, art or exploration. The library doesn’t have a set spot for teens to gather either, she said.
“Those kids want to be with their own age groups,” said Verzani.
By rearranging the space, the library also hopes to make the second floor less compartmentalized.
“Right now, the way the shelving is laid out, it blocks the staff from people and it’s hard to see if someone looks lost or needs help,” she said.
Verzani became director at Elmwood and the library in August 2013. Before that, she was the youth and young adult services manager and assistant library director at Hinsdale Public Library for 13 years.
“Over the last several years before, before I even started, the [Elmwood Park] library was already working with an architect,” said Verzani.
Recently Tiffany Nash, an architect is from Chicago-based Product Architecture + Design, began working with library officials to review the previously drafted plans to see which were feasible for the library to pursue.
Around the time Verzani was made director the library had just completed a redesign of the adult services floor plan space, which included the addition of five public study rooms and a family restroom.
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Regarding the changes to youth services, Verzani said the library is pursing is a removal of wallpaper and painting the walls with bright colors, creating a dedicated audiovisual area, and opening up the floor plan. At press time, Product Architecture + Design did not yet have an artist rendering or model of what the renovated floor plan would look like, because they were still drafting it.
Verzani says it’s expected the renovations will cost between $60,000 to $70,000 and that the library is pursing grants to help cover that expense.
“We won’t know if we get one of the grants until the spring,” said Verzani. “If we get the grant, then 50 percent of the cost would be paid for by the library and the other 50 percent would come from the grant.”
Because of this, library officials decided to wait until March before going out to bid for contractors.
While the current building the library occupies was completed in 2002, the institution celebrated its 78th anniversary in Elmwood Park this year. In early 2015, a formal three-year plan to modernize the library is expected to get underway, the library’s website says. Input from residents and library users will be solicited during that process.