A $460,000 makeover to transform the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Bicentennial Library into a modern, user-friendly facility is under way, its executive director said.
In a matter of months, all fiction books, compact discs and DVDs will be displayed in new cases on the first floor that will make the space look more like a bookstore than a library, David Clapp said.
Nonfiction books will be on the second floor and research material and documents on the third, he said.
Public Works employees from the city and workers from Silverdale Correctional Facility have helped move more than 100,000 books, library officials said.
Workers tore up carpet on the second floor to make room for new tile. A coffee shop will open on the same floor within a few months. And the library’s wireless Internet will be completely updated and is expected to be almost 10 times faster.
At some point, some alcoves on the second floor will be made into conference rooms, Clapp said.
Money for the reorganization comes from a fund set up by the library years ago for a potential expansion of the library to Broad Street, Clapp said. But library officials decided to use the money for the reorganization instead.
“We need to do something for the patron’s experience right now,” Clapp said.
The inside reorganization comes after a report last year from Mayor Ron Littlefield’s Library Task Force criticized the library for not presenting a better experience for patrons. Much of the criticism centered on the downtown library’s look, saying it appeared old and outdated.
Littlefield said last week the library was taking steps in the right direction, but it will take more than shifting books and putting in a coffee shop.
“I don’t think they have the money to carry it as far as we’d like to address,” he said.
He said that next year the city and county will look at the sales tax agreement, the document that helps fund the library, and he wants to learn how the library can receive more tax money for its services.
The library at some point will need either substantial remodeling or a new downtown library will need to be built, Littlefield said. He said $460,000 sounds like a lot of money.
“But it isn’t really,” he said.
David Turner, chairman of the library’s board of directors, said he thinks the library has taken some important steps. None of the changes going on have hit taxpayers, he said.
And at the end of the day, library users’ experience will be enhanced, he said.
“It’s a new look,” Turner said.
LIBRARY FUNDRAISER
Club Lib, the library’s annual fundraiser, will be Saturday at 7 p.m. with the band Here Come the Mummies playing on the first floor of the downtown library.
Ticket prices are $75 for general admission, which includes the concert, adult beverages and food. Money raised will go toward renovating the children’s department.
For more information, visit www.clublibevent.com.
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