It's really gonna happen

December 21, 2007 10:57 pm
Reading room to enchant children
Westernport library getting renovations
Kevin Spradlin
Cumberland Times-News
WESTERNPORT — Local library branch manager Nancy Sudine has not gotten caught up in titles — for people, at least. But if she had to pick one to hang her hat on, it’d be director of children’s services.

It’s a good fit for the 21-year veteran. As she puts it, “that’s my niche.”

It might not be coincidence then, that the children’s storytime area at the Westernport Library is to be the “major jewel of the crown” of renovations, which begin early next year. The library is scheduled to close at 5 p.m. Jan. 19 and take a week to empty the building.

From Feb. 4 until its scheduled reopening on April 7, the inside of the library will be transformed. It’s the first major renovation to the 38-year-old building and should put the memories of the 1996 flood out of mind.

“It’s time,” Sudine said of the need for renovations.

John Taube, director of the Allegany County Library System, recently asked Sudine to come up with a theme of the storytime area as an enchanted forest. Because memories of the flood remain fresh in her mind, Sudine insisted the library “did not want anything to do with water. It was a bad experience cleaning up the muck and the mud.”

Sudine chose an enchanted forest theme. It’s one that makes sense, she said.

“When you look around this end of Allegany County, you see forests, trees,” Sudine said.

In fact, trees are going to play a major role in the renovations — literally. Tree stumps are going to be configured to serve as the end panels of bookshelves.

“They are gorgeous,” Sudine said.

The upcoming renovations have Sudine and her staff excited. Working with Andrea DePalatis, of Spectrum Design in Frostburg, Cumberland’s Terry Bachman of Tangram Woodworks is using his expertise to add to the natural scenery look of the area. Sculptor Kurt Bonello of Everett, Pa., is using natural objects — glass and stone — for a creation to hang from the ceiling.

“Oh, I can’t wait,” Sudine said. “We’re doing a happy dance.”

Sudine and the library’s loyal patrons have a lot to look forward to. Beginning with the storytime area, “it’s going to be completely different,” Sudine said.

The current project will rewire the facility and allow it to handle computers — something not thought of in 1969, Taube said. There also will be new furniture, new carpet and the inside will be painted. The meeting room also will be renovated.

“We want to make the place as warm and welcoming and bright and colorful as the community and the staff there is,” Taube said. “It’s a real piece of the community.”

A local artist is creating a sculpture to display and a local woodworker is helping to build the child’s storytime area.

The building was constructed in 1969 and opened the following year. After the 1996 flood damage, carpet and some furniture was replaced, Taube said, but the building still had needed repairs and updates. It received a new floor and roof last year at a cost of about $122,000.

The remaining $23,000, combined with other money from a 2006 bond issue the county borrowed, created a total of $80,000 in county funding for the current project.

Taube has acquired about $63,000 in state grants — matched with county funding — to help complete the project, said county Finance Director Jerry Frantz.

“They will have a pretty nice library when it’s all said and done,” Frantz said.

Taube said he’s thankful county officials recognize the need for this project and hopes they are as generous with future improvement.

Taube knows how much the town celebrates and patronizes its library. He might not be aware of the depth of their excitement, however. Sudine said casual conversation led to the idea of having a party when the library reopens.

That talk led to the possibility of a full-scale parade — complete with children pushing shopping carts like those used in libraries down Main Street.

“It’s so exciting,” Sudine said.

Kevin Spradlin can be reached at kspradlin@times-news.com.

No network

Last week was a horrible week. We had no network in our building...or in town for that matter...from Monday until Friday.Power went out at the tower and Allconet was totally down. No circ. No internet. It made for an interesting week. We hooked our computer in the back room up to the web ramp which meant no fax machine. I forgot how slow dial-up was. AWFUL slow. AND...no scanner. All the barcodes and every number coming our way had to be typed in by hand. This couldn't have happened at a worse time. We had piles of deletions waiting to be scanned. Piles of returned books to be scanned. Thursday we were up and down so fast it made us dizzy. I've never seen Sherry discouraged before.(Not a pretty sight!) A big thank you went out to my supervisor Lisa M. We scanned barcodes on a word document and got them to her during one of the 2-minute up phases and she took care of quite a bit of them for us. So thankful were we come Friday when the system went up and stayed up. What a backload to take care of.

Maryland Share for Allegany County

I'm having a problem with Maryland Share. I don't know who is "in charge" of it if anybody. Any information for Allegany County (and there isn't much) is outdated. I didn't have time to look at other counties but I will today. I'm having the same problem with my town...there isn't a whole lot of anything posted wherever I've looked. This is going to prove to be a challenge to locate information. It's making me wonder how in the world I've answered any questions pertaining to community programs in the past other than what I already know.We do have a link on our homepage but it doesn't cover everything I'm searching for. Another good lesson for me.

Reference Challenge

And it became a REAL challenge for me today. I've been writing, erasing, neatening up my answers on paper for weeks now. So...today was the day I was going to type it all in. I brought a sub in so I could take my time and stay in the workroom working on this. I had 2 questions left to answer. I LOST THE WHOLE THING.All my B-D answers. Talk about being a crybaby. There went more time while I redid it. DONE! FINALLY!

Time Off ?

I'm off for FOUR days this week...no traveling, no work and bad luck to my kids...no babysitting either. I'm playing catch up on all sorts of things...LATI homework included. Now if I could just stay off Fox News online...and especially GretaWire. I'm addicted to her blog!

WET!

Rollyo # 12

I prefer to bookmark on my favorites.

Library Thing # 11

MySpace

Allegany County Teen Team has a MySpace page. You can access it two ways:
www.alleganycountylibrary.info then click on Teens Page
http://www.myspace.com/the_teen_lair

YouTube #20

I am SOOOOOOOOOO addicted to YouTube. I absolutely LOVE it. And it must run in the family genes...my one grandgirl (she's be 8 on the 25th) is also addicted. I chose not to put another one on here because I won't get my work done. See an earlier entry on this blog...Shift Happens. I have others on my 23 Things blog.."steviefan".It's just too easy to use and time really does slip away.

Wikis #16

While doing 23 Things this past summer, I thought about a wiki for Allegany. Since then, we have formed a Teen Team which is tying in with a project for Learning Libraries 3 and now with LATI. I'm finding it's a great way for my team to communicate and keeps everybody up to date.The best thing about it is that all of us can edit, change and contribute to it. http://alleganyteen-team.pbwiki.com/

SLRC tour 15 Sept

I did a SLRC tour 11 years ago and I enjoyed this tour just as much. I don't think one day really covers everything. I was totally amazed how many people I knew. This is what networking is all about. I may not remember names too well but I remember faces. I did the Google program in the morning and an express tour in the afternoon. I thought it was all well worth it. I'm starting to know my way around Baltimore ( a LITTLE bit). I had a conversation with Barbara from MILO and found out I was actually in Baltimore City. She was pointing out which direction various places were located. I really don't think I could drive around there, though. I've lived rural for too many years. Which reminds me...off topic here...I went over the Bay Bridge for the first time ever 2 weeks ago. I attended a workshop in Salisbury. WOW! That bridge is LOOOOOOOONG! I HAD to roll my window down and hang on to my glasses.I think I made a few people with me a tad nervous but I just had to get a good look.

Program on 14 Sept.

This was a wonderful presentation!I've been to many workshops and programs over the years and I have to say this was one of the better ones. I really liked the participation and interaction with everybody, and it gave those who don't do childrens programs a great opportunity to learn fist hand. (I'm burning copies of "Tooty Ta" for my LCN group).I was especially impressed with their outreach program. I brought home a lot of good information and ideas. It was really nice to meet Laura...to actually put a face to a name.

Update for renovation

Was it John Lennon singing..."I heard the news today oh boy..." Westernport will be closed for 10 weeks starting January 21 and will reopen on April 7...with a "soft opening". I had to ask...what IS a soft opening? OHHHHHHHHHH...it means we won't be finished but we will be functional. Again I had to ask...what's the difference between a soft and hard opening? I SEE. That's when we're totally finished and the DIGNATARIES are invited. Okay. Actually I'm just thrilled it's going to happen. What I've seen so far of floor plans and fabric and everything else is just beautiful. The theme for the childrens room/story area is Enchanted Forest...tree stumps for the end panels...colorful gauzy material for the leafy canopy. We'll have 2 weeks to pack up everything in the building and get it moved out. What a job. I've been told we'll have plenty of help. YAY.

LATI project

Sherry and I are doing our project on Westernport's renovation. I found out this week that the date's been pushed up yet again. At first it was supposed to be August, and we would have had the Bookmobile stationed at the park across the street from my house for so many days a week. This would have been an interesting experience for a number of reasons: I've only been on it once; the park has a walking track that maybe we could have used during down time; there's a gazebo in the middle of it that I had planned to hold storyhours; just a nice all around work day. Then the date was changed to November/December. Oooops...forget November. We're still here and open for business. I IM'd my director last week and asked if it were safe to say we'd still be open in December. Yep. Renovation will start 1 February. So now I'm assuming we'll close mid to the sort of end of January in order to pack up the building. This is actually a good thing. Have you ever seen a working workroom? I was afraid I wouldn't be ready when the time came. I can't believe the stuff I'm finding...and it seems to be multiplying. As fast as I play pitch and toss, here comes more. And the books! We've kept up pretty well with weeding in the past few years, and it's funny that I've said at least 3 times "we're doing another MAJOR weed". Here we are again. Another MAJOR weed.I thought I was being relentless before. Nope. I am now. That's the good thing...more time to get rid of stuff. The not-good-thing is that I don't know if renovation will be done in time for our project. We talked about this today. We found out by experience just a year ago that when it was said our roof and meeting room would be done in 9 business days, it took 3 weeks. Nothing seems like it goes according to the PLAN. And...Sherry and I won't get to work the Bookmobile after all. Neither one of us wants to shovel snow.

Mystery Shopping Gone Bad

I am not much of a shopper...I sometimes pay one of my kids to do my food shopping for me...and I think this experience could turn me against all shopping except for buying from catalogs. I had gone to the mall one afternoon to go to an "upscale" store that seems to be the only one in Western Maryland that carries the fragrance I like. I had my elderly neighbor with me. We stood at the counter, patiently waiting for a sales clerk to venture over our way.At that time there were no other customers around and there were three clerks standing around talking. They looked our way and continued talking. Another customer walked up and my gosh...she got waited on. Still we stood there while the other two clerks continued talking. The sales clerk finished with the customer and finally looked us up and down and asked in a most snotty manner if there was something we wanted.I told her yes PLEASE and asked for the fragrance. She acted like it was such an effort to reach under the glass counter to retrieve the bottle! While I was waiting for my change, my neighbor commented that she felt we didn't belong in this particular store. That really ticked me off because that was EXACTLY how we were made to feel. It dawned on me that I had on old pants and my son's hoodie, maybe not the best way to dress when going into an expensive store. But it shouldn't have mattered...I was still a customer. I was very polite when the clerk came back with my change, but I did tell her that just because I wasn't dressed up didn't give her the right to be rude. Now when I'm running out of my fragrance, my sister sends it to me.

Assignments

I'm trying to get myself UNconfused. The problem I've been having is the assignments in each module all seem to be due on different dates. I was reading some of the comments and blogs that others have done and I keep seeing "LISTS". A wonderful idea. I think this will make a big difference for me. So now with working on time management and schedules, I've created a list that's showing me when what is due. This will be a time saver so I don't have to go to each and every place to find the assignments. I can already see a lot of organization showing through...as long as I remember to note WHAT is due and WHEN it's due...and then actually DO it! Maybe I'll eventually find the top of my desk.

Time Management

After reading Inch by Inch I realised time management doesn't seem to exist for me. Funny that I read this now...in a check-in with my supervisor the other week,she suggested that I make up a schedule for desk time, which Sherry and I share. I was thinking this wouldn't work. No way. Hmmmmmm. After thinking about all that I do, it looks like I'm spread out all over the place. So I've been sitting here with a ton of paper and writers cramp and it's all starting to make sense. Maybe it WILL work after all. Starting the beginning of the week I'll give it a try. The worst thing that could happen is maybe I'll at least get myself a tad more organized.

Magical Mystery Tour...Shopping!

I had to stop at a $$ store in town this morning to pick up snacks for an after school program. On my way in the store I passed the manager who was on her break. I asked about any empty big boxes for a new-mom cat who had 6 kittens on my front porch. No luck. I went on into the store and OMG they moved what I was looking for. After walking around the store on a Dorito hunt,I heard the manager calling me. She directed me to where they moved my Doritos, found me a box and asked if there was anything else I needed. I realize this isn't much, but I came out of the store with a really good feeling. She remembered what I was looking for and helped me out. (Alas, no, she turned me down on a kitten.)This is how I hope customers feel when they leave my library...that we've been helpful and they have what they want.

About Westernport Renovation

The renovation of the Westernport
branch will enrich library users’
experiences by creating a floor plan
designed to be welcoming, warm, and
easy to navigate, while improving the
ability of staff to fully monitor the
entire facility.
New paint and carpet will be used
in schemes that improve the look and
feel of the whole library, as well as
defining the usage of specific spaces
within the building. Upgrades to
current shelving will match the new
interior design and color scheme, and
new or refurbished furniture will
further define spaces that add interest
and enhance the comfort of all users
Modern and energy efficient lighting fixtures will
improve the lighting in the facility and broaden the
appeal of the space. Furthermore, the out-dated
electrical wiring will be upgraded throughout the
building to ensure the safety of our users. Finally, the
project creates the facility’s first safety system,
including smoke detectors, sprinklers, fire alarms,
pull-boxes, and the ability to remotely monitor the
facility.
The combination of these improvements will
result in a brighter, more inviting, and colorful place
that is warm and welcoming. The improvements also
will ensure the safety and sustainability of the
facility, so that it can continue to be a vibrant center
of the community that promotes learning, encourages
social interaction, and lifts the human spirit.
The Westernport branch in its current state is
a considerable community asset. In a town of a little
over 2,100 people, it sees over 2,000 visitors a
month. The branch is open six days a week, checks
out over 4000 items, and hosts nearly 300 children
each month at its numerous story hours.
Our most recent renovation saw an increased
usage of 11% at the improved facility, and we expect
a significant jump following this renovation, as both
first time and return users linger and make the most
of the many library services we offer.
Renovation of

Did you know?

Thing 8

I set up RSS feeds and bloglines about a year ago after attending a training workshop. Some of my favorite ones are Shifted Librarian, Walking Paper, Librarian in Black, Information wants to be Free... just to name a few. RSS feeds are a great way to keep up with news...and to see when some of my favorite authors books are available.

Rosesmom

Geek Chic

OMG I'm a 20!!!! I thought I'd be way WAY down the line at about a 5. My kids think it's funny that I can't work their remotes. I think it's sad.

Thing 2

For me, the easiest part of the 7 and 1/2 habits is having FUN while I learn.I'm glad that was left for last because it made me feel better after reading them all.
The hardest for me is Habit # 4...not a whole lot of confidence in myself to learn.But if I wasn't nervous about it, I'd be overconfident. I just love the idea of never too old, too youg.etc.It's so true.

Thing 1

This is my second round with 23 Things and I think I'll enjoy it as much as the first time. I can spend more time on different "Things" that I didn't have time for before. I LOVE to play!