An interesting year

HPL went through a pretty exciting year of change in 2016. We started off the year by hiring a Marketing expert in anticipation of our spring brand launch. What we didn't anticipate was a small job of repainting the Business Office turning in to a major mold remediation job! Despite that upset, we managed to launch Seemore and the new look for the library. We bid for and hired a contractor to remodel the Main street entrance and a part of the Children's library. We did all of our regular stuff - programming, Summer Reading Program, checked out materials, answered questions, and much, much more all while maneuvering around construction areas and plugging our ears during long days of jack-hammering.

Despite all the chaos, our door counters recorded 252,332 entries in to the building. Our wifi was used 38,850 times by 4,267 different devices and we answered 22,414 reference questions! Amazing! Believe it or not, our circulation of physical items was 369,101. That's real, solid stuff, not digital. And our digital circulation grew as well with over 50,000 checkouts of ebooks, eaudio, music, and emagazines.

We did well. We did amazingly well, I think. I'm looking forward to 2017 and some additional exciting projects we have planned. But right now, I'm just thankful for the great people who make HPL the wonderful resource that it is - the staff and volunteers who work so hard to make it a place for all to come and discover something new, explore, and connect with others.

Finally, thank you Hutchinson for using our great library, and thank you to all who come from farther afield as well. We will continue to serve you to the best of our abilities in 2017 and beyond.

A Little Breathing Room

The light at the end of the tunnel is bright. We are finally nearing the end of our renovation project that included both entrances to the library, bathrooms, reading spaces, the Friend's Book Store, and the Children's Story Time Room.

I have to say that I am excited, but at the same time a little bit sad because I do love a project.

For the time being though, I think I'll sit down, take a little rest, and enjoy the view...

The "Plan" is coming together

We have been working through almost 3 months of construction, but we are beginning to see the light - literally - signaling the end of this phase. Here's a pretty good idea of what the Main Street entrance will be like when it reopens in a few weeks:

Those little cleats above the new windows will hold a metal sunshade. There's only a very little that needs finishing on the exterior besides the shade. A little bit of paint work and we're set.

Here's what it looks like from the inside on the second floor - no carpet yet, but the ceiling grid is going in today and you can get a general idea of what the view will be like sitting in what will be a nice new reading area.

Here's another view from inside looking basically straight east.

Downstairs, the Friend's Book Store is getting a remodel. Here's what it looks like at the moment. The new enlarged foyer is visible beyond. The new foyer area will help us keep a more stable temperature in the front area of the library.

Construction update!

The remodeling of the Main Street entrance is coming along roughly on schedule. As is the case with any remodel (versus a new build) there are almost certainly going to be some of those "Hmm...that's not on the drawings" moments. So far, we've really only had one major stumper as the flooring was peeled up across the seam between the northern-most addition and the older part of the building. That problem has been resolved, thankfully.

If you drive by now, you can see a glimpse of what the exterior will look like when it's done. The window frames are in both upstairs and down. Right now they are working on the un-glamorous but VERY necessary changes to the HVAC in that area.

Dust barrier inside the Main Street entrance - it worked great!

North facing wall pre-window frames

Sidewalk view pre-window frame

Hard hat area!

Over the next few months, the Hutchinson Public Library (well, parts of it anyway) will be hard hat zones! Watch out for the construction - it starts in the East side or Main Street entrance THIS MONDAY - April 18th!

From Monday the 18th through early August, the Main Street entrance will be closed, so please use the West entrance that goes into the Children's Department.

We are embarking on a remodeling project that, when finished, will leave us with a new Main Street entrance, a new reading/lounge area, new children's restrooms, and a revitalized story time room. I for one am very excited. This is a step in the right direction toward becoming more welcoming and more modern-looking.

You see, we have a bit of an image problem at HPL. I rank us up there with the best of them in the areas of services and tools offered and certainly when comparing staff skills. But we don't necessarily look it.

I think our visible changes will help with the perception that we're the "same old library". We haven't been the library that you knew in the 1980's for, well, decades. Public libraries have been constantly adapting and changing to meet demand and HPL is no different.

Plans are shaping up!

As we move in to the heart of winter, plans are being completed for sprucing up the library! We will be working on the children's story time room, the children's bathrooms, doing a little work on the children's entrance, and a lot of work on the Main Street entrance. The Main street part of the project will include a new second floor reading area. If everything stays on track, we plan to have a bid opening for this work in early March and have work started later in the spring!

But wait, there's more! We are still taking suggestions for milliondollarideas@hutchpl.org regarding what to do with the large bequest that was left to HPL. Our goal is to do something that will have the biggest impact possible on the lives of our patrons and the life of the community. We're trying to think big. We're looking for something amazing, unique, and potentially life-changing for our users.

Building Improvements

Plans are shaping up for making some much needed improvements and refurbishment to our building!

Using funds saved back in our Capital Improvement fund, in 2016 we will be working on both entrances, the children's library restrooms, and the children's story time room.

The west entrance will be first up this spring. We will be changing the HVAC systems in that area to try to improve the comfort level. This phase of the project shouldn't be too disruptive, but there will be times when the entrance will have to be closed for safety reasons.

Once the West entrance has been finished up, we will make a fairly major change to the Main Street entrance. That side will get a larger foyer area, better HVAC and new doors. We will add some seating for people waiting for rides and more.

Tied to the Main Street entrance refurbishment will be a renovation of the old computer lab area on the second floor (directly above the Main entrance). This area will get some windows, comfortable seating, and the AV collection. This will make for a nice quiet reading and study area with a view of Main Street.

Once that area is finished, we should be past the 2016 Summer Reading Program and the refurbishment process will move back over to the Children's Department. The restrooms in that area will be totally redone from the plumbing up. During this time, the story time room will also receive a much-needed face lift that will include new flooring, paint, storage and craft time clean-up facilities.

These projects will be done with funds the library has set aside over a few years by being frugal with our tax dollars. The capital improvement fund was created specifically to help entities like the library save up for needed repairs and improvements to our building. This means that no new taxes are needed nor will any debt be incurred for these projects!

Building Upgrades at Hutchinson Public Library

It's been a long time since any major remodeling or expansion has taken place at the Hutchinson Public Library. Of course we have had "maintenance" types of work done and I suppose you could consider things like a new roof "major work". But you never notice a roof until it leaks.

What we are planning now is a series of upgrades to the usable spaces in the library.

First, we are moving the public computers out of the poorly ventilated second floor space it now occupies. The computers will move to the first floor in the area below the mezzanine. IT staff will still be available to help but computers will be in more of a walk-up situation, out in the open.

That move frees up the space the lab currently occupies, which brings me to the second project: Remodeling the Main Street entrance. We are going to extend the foyer eastward to create a larger air-lock to help with heat gain/loss when the automatic doors are all open. Simultaneously, we will be adding some windows and a reading area in the old lab space which is directly above the Main Street entrance. In the end, we hope to have a better entry AND a nice new (quieter) reading area overlooking Main street.

Our third major upgrade is sorely needed. We will be remodeling the children's area bathrooms. These are the oldest bathrooms in the building and boy, do they show it! They will get a top-to-bottom redo.

For the more distant future, we have in the works an upgraded and enlarged young adult area and a remodel of the auditorium.

It may not always seem like it, but we are working hard to bring you new services and now updated spaces!

Looking forward to 2013

I know, it's tiny.  See the photos up close at the library!

Now that we've made it past the "end" of the Mayan calendar with nary a single asteroid collision, continent-swallowing tsunami, rash of super volcanoes, or other civilization-ending apocalypse; we can focus on what's to come in 2013.

We're starting off the year with some terrific guests - Dave McKane's new photography exhibit opens January 3rd at 6pm.  Where his previous exhibit focused on clouds and the relics of farms past, this new show celebrates that glorious moment of deep blue found in the skies near twilight.  The photographs will be on display in the Library's auditorium.  Just after Mr. McKane's opening, we will have a visit from Kevin Williams, editor of the Amish Cook.  The Amish Cook columns appear regularly in the Hutchinson News.  Mr. Williams will be at the library on January 7th at 6:30 pm.  We will have some of his books available for purchase and autographing at that time.

Besides programming, we have many other things to look toward in 2013.  We will continue to make progress on our vision for the library "Technology Center".  As we save money for the project and attempt to raise extra funds for it, we will have professional drawings made to help make real our ideas.  Temporarily, we will add some seating in the area where the adult non-fiction 900s were once housed.

Lighting will be improved in the second floor stacks.  We're looking at a new telephone system that makes use of our upgraded network infrastructure, and there will be changes in the way public computer time is measured and monitored.  Phew.  Now I'm tired.  And that list doesn't even include the interesting ideas I've been reading about for defining our mission / setting our goals for the next couple of years.

Phase 1 and an Alien Invasion!

The first phase of our great book shift is progressing.  This is what the second floor looks like as of this morning:

From the Kansas Room door

3 rows of stacks up, ready to assemble the 4th

Down stairs in the Children's Department, preparations for Star Wars Reads Day are nearly complete.  I think that it will be a lot of fun!  Luke's speeder is nearly complete and Jabba is making a killing charging 1,000 credits per picture!

Our program starts at 2pm on the 6th (Saturday).

This photographer is my kind of scum - fearless and inventive!

..."but I was going in to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters!"

Changes are afoot!

Second Floor stacks...with stacks

New homes for the 700's!

We're changing.  What are we changing?  The way we look (hopefully for the better), some things that limit service, some things that created barriers.

This is the start of phase one of a long project.  Please follow along to see some of the awesome things our staff has planned!

The Hunt for New Ideas, part 2: Revenge of the New Idea

Library stacks.  Library shelving.  You can picture in your mind exactly what I'm talking about without me actually going out there and finding an image, right?  It hardly seems like something that would be subject to a "new idea" does it?  The humble book shelf and book stack has remained largely unchanged in public libraries for 150-odd years.  Here's what the stacks look like in the Hutchinson Public Library:

Storage, pure and simple.  What's hard to see here is how they are constructed.  Each section has a rectangular frame in the middle from which the shelves hang.  Like this:

This is not a bad way to do it.  It holds the shelves very securely, allows for long rows to be linked together, and is very sturdy.  However, one is limited in configuration because most of these systems don't work very well with different height frames hooked together - basically you can put together long lines of, for example, 7' high shelf stacks.

So along comes a company called Paragon with a new way of looking at library shelving.  At least it's new to me.  And I've been looking.  The shelving product is called Intuitive-IC and they allow a library to do one thing differently - mix up and combine shelf heights, work surfaces, and seating within the row of shelving.  Here's a picture:

If you look closely, you can see that the cantilever supports that hold up the shelves go from the front and back edges toward the middle of the shelves.  This allows all different heights of shelves to be put together in a row.  They have a short little YouTube video that shows some of the possibilities.

I think this might be a good choice for our art collection on the second floor since we need to replace the shelving there.  We need to be able to stack higher, but want the option of some low tops on which to set heavy books.  It is a collection that lends itself to browsing and sometimes it is easier to look through a few right there in the stacks before deciding which ones to check out.

As I go through the stack of papers and brochures I picked up at ALA Midwinter, I continue to find more and more good ideas and nifty new ways of looking at the same old library things!

Today is the Big Day!

After months of planning, work and now tidying up, the Quiet Reading Room is ready for its Grand Opening!  I extend my humble thanks and appreciation for all the hard work that contributed to bringing us to this day.

• Thank you to the Friends of the Hutchinson Public Library for funding the project!
• Thank you to the Staff and others who worked on the committee to design it:  Mary Lou Sunderland, Martha fee, Lisa Dethloff, Julie Magyar, Cheryl Canfield, Lou McConnaghy, Roni Boldt, Austin Smith, Tremaine Fernandez, and Charlene Childs.
• Thank you to the Library's Maintenance staff for making the space spic-and-span for today.
• Thank you to Annette Smith for the preparations for the Grand Opening celebration.

I hope that the patrons of the library see the space for what it is; a sanctuary to get away from the noises that accompany the modern public library, a little oasis of calm for quiet contemplation and study.  It is also a tip-of-the-hat to the history of this building.

From the fiction sorting area

Women's Civic Center information

Lighted study carrel

Mid-summer update

As we sit here baking in the hot July sun, I am thankful that I am able to sit here in the relative cool of the library.  It has been a somewhat tumultuous summer so far and I thought I'd write down all that has been going on.  In late May, we found out that the Bru Crue Coffee Bar was going to have to abruptly shut down.  I, and many others, were sad to hear about this.  However, we will soon have another coffee vendor up and running - Rita's Roast Coffee Co. will be open very soon.

Our new roof has been finished and at least in some parts of the building, the reflective quality of the white vinyl may actually be helping to lower the temperature!  I'm not sure that there's any helping the Computer Lab temperature, but other parts of the second floor seem cooler.

On the subject of the public computer lab, we are exploring the cost involved in redoing the HVAC for that part of the building.  As we have discussed what to do about the computer lab, we have revisited the arrangement of the whole area north of the mezzanine.  Who knows?  By the time all is said and done, we may have a whole new look on the 2nd floor!

Wow! That is loud!

We are in the process of having our roof replaced at HPL.  This is a much-needed maintenance project as we have been suffering through leak after leak for the past 18-24 months.  However, by delaying a re-roof and making do with patches over that time, we were able to set aside enough money to pay for the project out right.  I am not a big fan of borrowing money, in my personal finances or at the library.

The point of my mentioning it though is that the new roof is "mechanically fastened".  Intellectually, I understood what that meant - hammer-drilling fasteners into the concrete deck to hold down the new backing.  In practice though...yikes!  It sounds sort of like some one running a jack hammer in a culvert pipe.  My apologies if you come in over the next week to ten days hoping for peace and quiet!

However, when we are done, we'll have a PVC [edit: TPO] membrane roof that looks something like this:

This type of roof has some benefits (besides keeping the rain out).  It is supposed to reflect heat from the sun to reduce heat radiating into the building.  Supposedly we will save some money on our utility bills, which after seeing the last bill for May/early June will be a blessing!  There are lots of options for flat-roofed structures, I found out as we went through this process.  I hope we picked the right one.

Quiet Reading Room

Study carrels

We are moving steadily along with the renovation of the old quiet reading room.  It is starting to look like what, I think, we were looking for in a nice study space.  This project has been funded almost entirely by the Friends of the Hutchinson Public Library!  We are planning a grand opening for mid-July - watch for an official announcement.  The pics you see here are part of a series that Annette Smith has been collecting.  More of them can be seen on Facebook.  The wainscot you see in the room was created using oak hardwood paneling salvaged from the Women's Civic Center building.

An early shot

Same wall with wainscot, new door, and trim

Now with floor and some of the new furniture

Grab Bag

Catch-all, whatever you might call it - this is that type of post.

First off, a few building updates.  We started off this spring with a flurry of activity aimed at restoring the Quiet Reading Room.  This was a space in the original 1950 portion of the building designated for contemplative study away from the hub-bub of the rest of the bustling library.  It had been gone for a long time and is sorely needed again.  As I said though, we started with a flurry of activity, but have ground to a halt waiting on furniture orders.  Never fear though, because we will announce a grand re-opening in the next few weeks.

Second, I read an article from the Guardian (UK) newspaper about the "secret" life of libraries.  I wouldn't call this an article so much as a reminiscence.  However, it ended with a couple of passages which I'd like to quote here because they hit home with me regarding what libraries are worth to a society:

"The pace of life is different now, and people expect art to happen to them. Music and film do that, a CD will do that, but you have to make a book happen to you. It's between you and it. People can be changed by books, and that's scary. When I was working in the school library, I'd sometimes put a book in a kid's hands and I'd feel excited for them, because I knew that it might be the book that changed their life. And once in a while, you'd see that happen, you'd see a kind of light come on behind their eyes. Even if it's something like 0.4% of the population that that ever happens to, it's got to be worth it, hasn't it?"

The libraries' most powerful asset is the conversation they provide – between books and readers, between children and parents, between individuals and the collective world. Take them away and those voices turn inwards or vanish. Turns out that libraries have nothing at all to do with silence.

Third, I'd like to point out ANOTHER awesome collection of information posted on the Kansas Government Information (KGI) blog.  It's about one of my favorite political figures from the recent past, Senator Bob Dole.  Browse through a trove of Dole-related links here.

So there you have it.  A grab bag befitting my little collection of odd bits and extraneous information that I have posted here over the past 2-ish years!

New computers, spaces, and other cool stuff

I am starting to get more excited about the Quiet Reading Room - it is nearly done!  In fact, the space itself is ready for the new furniture.  If you go in there right now and look around a bit, you will see two SAMPLE chairs.  Each is customizable size- and softness-wise.  Please sit down in one and tell me what you think.  They are samples of these:

Bear in mind that we can get the"Reflect" (the chair with arms) with a wider seat, a softer cushion, a higher back and a tablet arm.  Also, we can get the "Cavetto" (the chair on the right) with a firmer seat.

I am of two minds about these chairs.  I liked the Cavetto more than I thought I would when I actually sat in it, but I like the wood-capped arms of the Reflect chair.  For me, I would sit in the Reflect longer.  The Cavetto is nice with the swiveling tablet arm though, and I like the really tall back.  I am a little afraid of dirt and grime accumulating on the fabric though.  No matter the style choice, we will order them with this cool fabric that will not absorb stains or spills and can be cleaned with fairly harsh cleaners.

We are finally getting moving again on a project started in November to rejuvenate the children's computer area.  Three AWE workstations have just arrived and are being prepared for use.  Though more expensive up front than a normal computer that we would add software to, the AWE stations more than make up for their higher price in convenience and lower upkeep.  You see, they have all the software fully installed on the computer's hard drive so there is no need to swap disks to use them.  Also, there is no need to install software after the fact, repair or replace scratched game disks, deal with compatibility issues, update to latest versions, etc.  Their website has a little pop-up video overview you can see here.  Also, you can see the .pdf list of software these computers include here.

These computers will be a nice addition to the department and ease a tremendous burden on our IT staff.  If they are successful, we may purchase more in succeeding years.

Also, we are very grateful to our Friends of the Library for purchasing (among many other things) two of these carts to hold our gaming systems we use for game days!  We will be able to just roll the carts out, plug in the power, and hand the controllers to the first kids in line. 

Ah, the sweet sounds of construction!

Our little remodeling project is underway.  Nothing major, just returning what was the "Rayl Reading Room" back to its original use.  In the original 1949 plans, this space was set aside to be the place where you could go with your newspaper, magazine, or book, and read in relative peace and quiet.  Apparently, you could also smoke in there as well!

Over the years as the library expanded, the space was used for many other things.  For some time it was the microfilm room and most recently it was a staff workroom.  Now though, we need a place that is quiet.  So we have come full-circle and will return the space to a "quiet" reading room.

Today, we saw some samples for lounge chairs.  These are the ones we are currently considering:

Sauder "Reflect"

Sauder "Cavetto"

Sauder "Planar"

What do you think?  I didn't think I'd like a chair without arms, but the "Cavetto" chair was actually quite comfortable, and we saw the model that comes with a movable tablet arm attached, which was pretty cool.  No matter which chair we pick, we'll hopefully be able to add more of them around the library as well.  We'll also add a couple of these study carrels to the Quiet Room:

All in all, a good day for the library today, I think.  Of course, I'll probably be singing a different tune when I start back in on the annual report tomorrow!

But there's always Friday, when we'll be meeting with a web designer to start talking about redesigning the HPL website!

Quiet Room - FINALLY!

As we near the end of 2010, we also near the end of the 2010 budget.  The 2011 budget is slightly better and more importantly, the Friends of the Hutchinson Public Library have made a significant donation toward finally realizing the dream of a "quiet" reading space.  For the past few days, I have been ushering through a series of our fine local builders describing the project.  I am confident that we will have a new reading room early next year.

This room will occupy space that was originally (circa 1950) the "Rayl Reading Room".  We'll have some comfortable chairs, some study tables and some peace and quiet for those who come here seeking a place to study undisturbed.