The Brookfield Public Library will close down for six to eight weeks starting Nov. 23 as the library undergoes a refurbishing that is budgeted to cost $324,577. The library, except for its lower level, will not reopen until mid to late January.
New carpeting, tile, furniture and 16 new electrical outlets will be installed as the library undergoes a facelift.
“The library is quite obviously showing its wear and tear,” said Brookfield Public Library Director Kimberly Litland.
In 2007, the library board considered building a new library to replace the current building on Grand Avenue. The library targeted a location at the corner of Arden and Washington avenues in the Hollywood section of Brookfield and hoped to buy five private homes, tear them down and build a new library.
The library bought one home on Arden Avenue in the summer of 2007 for $400,000. It obtained rights of first refusal on some of the other homes, but the plan fell apart when one of the homeowners refused to sell.
Now the library is renting out the home that it purchased, hoping to wait out slump in house prices. Facing a weak economy and an uncertain chance to pass a property tax increase to fund the building of a new library, the library board has decided to forget about building a new library and will instead fix up its current home, which was built in 1985.
“The goal of the board is to update the current facility,” Litland said. “In accordance with the library’s huge increase in statistics in almost everything we do- circulation, programming – I think the facility is showing an equivalent amount of wear and tear.”
The refurbishing will not expand space at the library, but should result in a more comfortable and efficient building. The refurbished library will feature comfortable upholstered chairs, end tables with built-in power outlets and a redesigned circulation desk. New electrical outlets should make it easier for patrons to use laptop computers in the library.
“We are currently seeing patrons doing things such as sitting in the middle of the library stacks, sitting in odd places, locking doors so as it plug in their laptops or other equipment,” Litland said.
The basement of the library will remain open during the refurbishing, and residents will be able to use computers, read current newspapers and use the library’s textbook collection.
The staff photocopier will also be available to residents and they will be able to print from library computers. The main collection will be closed and not accessible during the work.
Brookfield residents will be able to sign up for library cards, renew library cards, pick up books on hold and do other basic tasks at the Riverside Public Library, 1 Burling Road, where one member of the Brookfield library’s circulation staff will often be on duty to help Brookfield residents.
The remainder of the library staff will be on the job in Brookfield doing necessary tasks during the refurbishing. Librarians will be available to answer reference questions via e-mail or text message throughout the refurbishing.
“I think our library users should think of the refurbishing as a face-lift of sorts,” Litland said.