New Medford Public Library will offer users many options – Wicked Local

Barbara Kerr| Wicked Local

If you take a ride down High Street,you will see the new Charlotte and William Bloomberg Medford Public Library rising at 111 High St. Construction is going well and the new building is tentatively scheduled to open in October 2021.

It is hard to believe that we will be moving back into a brand new building in just one year, and even harder to believe that we started this project four years ago. The process of designing a new building has been challenging but really rewarding. Over the years, there have been so many things that I wished we could offer that the old building could just not accommodate.

A users experience in a library should be what they want it to bethere should be options for design and chairs and noise and quiet and comfort, and all ages should have the experience appropriate for their age group.

The old building could offer very few options all operations and ages were on one overstuffed floor with no walls and very few electrical outlets. When we sat down to map out the new design, our focus was to make the library a space with options for everyone, and I think the community will be really pleased with the result.

There will be quiet spaces, and social spaces, reading spaces, public spaces, creativity spaces, spaces for kids and teens and adults, and lots of computer spaces. The new library sits on almost exactly the same footprint as the previous library. Unlike the old building which had a partial second floor, the new one will have two full floors. This provides a lovely amount of room to grow.

The second floor will be divided between public use spaces, and the Realm of Youth Services two separate spaces for children and teens which share meeting and programming rooms. This is one of the best things about the new building. In the old library, spaces for all ages were stuffed together on the first floor, and the spaces for kids and teens were not really made for them. The new spaces are theirs entirely, designed with their needs and preference in mind.

The spaces will be colorful and full of light, with mobile shelving and lots of nooks for play and reading. Everything is designed to be adaptable so that the library spaces can change along with the community.

With Youth Services moved to the second floor, there was capacity to expand Adult services on the first floor. The public computer area has been more than tripled in size, and there will be a laptop vending station for those who want to check out a laptop and sit in a quiet corner. You can also bring your own laptop and hang out.

The shelving for collections has been expanded and the magazine and newspaper shelves will be in easy reach of comfortable chairs by the windows. Chairs were a hot topic when we were discussing what to put into the new building everyone hated the ones we had before. There are going to be lots of seating options. It will be a bit like the Three Bears some will be soft, some will be hard, and hopefully everyone will find one that is just right.

We have also planned for a variety of table configurations for study and collaboration. There will be electrical outlets galore so you can plug in everywhere. There will finally be options. One of the most satisfying things in the new design is the study and meeting rooms.

In the old building, the single meeting room was one of very few in the city and it was in constant use. There will be five study/meeting rooms on the first floor three small, one medium, and one large.

On the second floor there will be a large auditorium.

The Youth Services space will house another three study/meeting rooms as well as a program room. There will also be a Local History room available for small group use. The Local History room is a great feature of the new building. The Library houses a unique collection of materials related to the history of Medford and its residents.

Due to the lack of space in the old building, much of the collection was on the locked second floor and using it was awkward. The new Local History room will be front and center, right off the main lobby. A large part of the collection will be available to browse, with more fragile resources close at hand in locked storage.

Both the room and the storage will be temperature and light controlled so the collections will be in a safer and substantially less dusty environment. There will also be several display cases so that we can feature historical displays. Public spaces of all sorts feature in the new design.

In addition to the auditorium, which will seat 100, there will be a tech lab for classes and training on the second floor. Next door is a makerspace, a public workshop that will be available for all sort of community creativity. And right outside is the caf, across from our long-awaited art gallery space.

A commercial caf was not possible, but we will have vending machines and are planning for a commercial coffee/snack cart or stand. The building is designed so that the public spaces can be available after library hours. We expect the cafe area and auditorium to be used for lots of community events and art openings as well as our popular Friends book sales.

The Friends will have their own room as a base of operations on the second floor. One of the nice things about designing from the ground up was the potential for green construction. In fact, the new library is expected to be the first net zero library in Massachusetts.

It will also have a LEED Silver rating. The building systems are very energy efficient and upwards of 700 solar panels will be installed on the roof.

The landscaping will use native, drought resistant plants and there is a plan for flowers and groundcovers and trees all around the building. On the Hillside Avenue side there will be a large terraced area so you can sit outside and read or talk or drink coffee from the caf. Great pains were taken to protect the large beech tree on Hillside and it will be an integral part of the terraced landscape.

Access to the building will also be much easier. In the old building both entrances involved stairs and there was no public elevator. The new building has been designed so that both entrances come in level. The rear entrance is right next to the very welcome public elevator.

And yes there will be more parking. Because of the limitations of the lot it wont be a huge increase but it will be better. And if you come by bike, there will be bike racks at both entrances as well as a bike repair station in the parking lot.

During the whole design process, we kept in mind all of the things that the community had asked for through the years. With the architects and the construction specialists from the Board of Library Commissioners we designed a building that balanced library services with community needs.

I am excited about all the possibilities for library service and programs and community activity. Many times, over the last four years I have said that we were a good library in a bad building I cant wait to see what we all do in the new one.

There is so much potential and so many options its going to be great. If you would like to donate to the library project, there are lots of naming opportunities. Starting at $50 there are tiles and leaves and paving stones and larger things like rooms and solar panels. This has been a community effort and we have been so warmed by the support weve received.

We hope that lots of people will seize the opportunity to put their names in the new building.

To see what naming and donation opportunities are available, please visit the Medford Library Foundation website at https://www.medfordpubliclibraryfoundation.org/.

Barbara Kerr is the director of the Medford Public Library.

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New Medford Public Library will offer users many options - Wicked Local