Seven-year-old George Lachowsky couldn’t name just one thing he likes about the renovated children’s area in the Maumelle Library.
“I love it; I love everything about it,” he said, throwing out his arms.
The library, part of the Central Arkansas Library System, was scheduled to hold a grand opening last week to show off the $1.954 million, 1,377-square-foot addition, which includes five study rooms and a second meeting room — plus a children’s-program room. Other areas were remodeled as well.
Pam Rudkin, branch services coordinator, said the addition “has big tall ceilings; it’s beautiful.” The windows in the study rooms provide a picturesque view of Lake Willastein. The study rooms are my favorite part, actually.”
The heating-and-air system was upgraded, and parking space was tripled.
Rudkin said parking “was the most serious need.” Thirty-nine parking spaces were added to the 20 existing spaces, plus four handicapped-parking spaces.
“I would come back from lunch, and there was literally no place to park and nothing going on — just regular people popping in,” she said. The expanded parking also allowed a second entrance to the building.
A little rearranging inside, more public computers and the airy addition have made all the difference, Rudkin said.
“The addition space added these beautiful study rooms. We built one out that was big enough to hold 10 people — it’s more than just a study room,” she said.
“There’s a whole new dynamic here,” she said of the library. “Half the building is for children’s services.”
Kathy Gunter, children’s programming director, said the library staff “flip-flopped” the children’s area that was in the front with the adult nonfiction section and study area in the back of the existing building.
The wall was knocked down where the previous study rooms were, and the children’s programming room was created, Rudkin said. She said the new room will alleviate the need to use other meeting rooms as often for children’s programming.
A public meeting space is separated by a hallway, and that room is used for baby showers, birthday parties or any sort of public use, Rudkin said.
The children’s area has new shelving to make it easy to find books by reading levels — Easy, Juvenile and Young Adult. A man with a baby in an infant carrier was looking in the children’s Easy section for “something with bright pictures.”
A teens’ area at the back of the room has new furniture with built-in chargers for wireless devices, and the windows offer a view of Lake Willastein.
George took a seat on a bench to read one of his books. His grandmother, Sharon Gruber of Maumelle, said she brings George to the library when he visits her from Glen Rose.
“He really enjoyed the summer reading program, and he loves Mrs. Kathy,” Gruber said. George had gotten a hug from Mrs. Kathy during the visit.
Gruber said she is “very impressed” with the renovation and expansion, and the new table and chairs in the children’s section.
“I’ve been here (Maumelle) 30 years, and it’s really nice to see all the changes,” she said.
Gruber said she also participates in the Second Monday Book Club that meets in a room at the library.
“It’s the same room that has been completely renovated,” she said.
Rudkin said DVDs are the most checked-out item in the Maumelle library, which has a collection of about 52,000 items.
“People can check out 200 books at a time, 10 DVDs at a time. The limits are really high,” she said.
Gruber said George “discovered this cache of movies, so he had to get some for his little sister.”
Ivy Beck, 9, was visiting the library with her mother, Jeannie Beck of Maumelle.
“We haven’t been in a while, but we wanted to check out the new addition,” Jeannie Beck said. “I like it.”
She said Ivy has about “five books going at one time, so it’s hard to get more,” but they wanted to see the updated facility.
Ivy, a student at Crystal Hill Elementary School, said she was reading Queen Red Riding Hood’s Guide to Royalty.
Rudkin said the library added about four public computers, which are “very, very, very popular.”
“It serves that need for people who can’t afford to have internet at their house,” she said. “This is the place they get internet. A lot of people applying for jobs, you have to apply on line everywhere you go. It’s not uncommon to meet a person in their 70s who has to apply for a job online and doesn’t even know what email is. We walk them through it.”
Patrons are complimentary of the changes to the library, Rudkin said.
“They’re just so happy we’re open again. We were closed from Nov. 20 till March 12, a little over three months. What we did that typically doesn’t happen when we have to close down a library is we made a way for patrons to pick up holds three days a week.”
“We put staff in the meeting room because it had a back-gate entrance; we had certain hours, three times a week.
[Patrons] could still go online and then pick up books. They were really appreciative of that, but they really missed coming in and browsing,” she said.
More information is available at www.cals.org.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.