Flathead County Library begins remodeling project Tuesday

It isn't exactly "Extreme Makeover," but the Flathead County Library is set to begin a $130,000 remodeling project next week.

The work, which should start on Tuesday, includes renovating the reference desk area, creating a new teen area and improved children's area, rearranging some material and installing new shelving.

At about the same time, an unrelated technology project will add new computer workstations at the main library and at the Bigfork, Columbia Falls and Whitefish branches.

Kim Crowley, director of the county library system, said the remodel project is intended to make the facility more comfortable, inviting and customer-friendly.

"We're trying to create more common space and lighten things up," she said.

For example, the large "corral" in the second floor reference area that separates the librarians from the public will be demolished next week and replaced by two smaller "island" desks, Crowley said.

A new teen area will be created, also on the second floor, and new seating will be added in the children's area, to encourage more young people to use the library.

The audio-visual material - videos, DVDs, audio books, etc. - will shift from the first to the second floor, and the oak book shelves that hold the fiction collection will be replaced with sturdier metal shelving.

Some of the wooden shelves will be sent to the Marion branch and to the Lincoln County Library, Crowley said, but there should be some left over for sale.

The new shelving is supposed to arrive on May 10, she said. Once it's here, the library will close for two days to give the staff time to take all the books off the wooden shelves, then dismantle the shelves, put up the metal shelves, and replace the books.

"We hope to have the whole remodel done by mid-May," Crowley said.

The library has $70,000 budgeted for the renovations. The remaining $60,000 is being supplied by the Mary Lagoni Trust.

The Lagoni Trust and the Library Foundation are also funding a separate $47,000 technology project to install new computer workstations.

The main library will end up with 26 workstations, Crowley said, including three express Internet stations near the front entrance, 11 Internet computers on the second floor (up from five now), two Internet and three game computers in the children's area, and five catalog-only computers at various locations throughout the building.

The Bigfork branch will have three Internet and one catalog station, plus a game computer. Columbia Falls will have six Internet, two catalog and one game computer, and Whitefish will have eight Internet, three catalog and one game computer.

Crowley said that wireless Internet access for laptop computers will also be available at the main library.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com