How Richland Library is ‘creating a community hub’

It’s not your parents’ library.

Richland Library Main, the 242,000-square-foot downtown facility that opened in 1993, is changing as its $15 million renovation starts to reveal a modern and innovative library that is more like a community hub.

“It definitely changes how people are viewing the library,” says Emily Stoll, media relations specialist for Richland Library. “We’ve providing what the community needs, and what the community values.

“We’re changing into a 21st-century library.”

Some of the renovations are done, but signs of construction promise more improvements as well.

“It’s created spaces,” says Tracy Allen, director of library experience at Richland Library Main. “People who walk in, who haven’t been here for a while, are really blown away over how beautiful it is, and how open the spaces are.

“Every time we add something else, it improves the experience. … The library is really creating a community hub.”

What are these changes?

First-level overhaul

The first level, the floor patrons enter from Assembly Street, offers an 85-foot art gallery that is in midst of its second exhibition featuring the work of Marius Valdes, who just finished his time as artist-in-residence at Richland Library.

Valdes’ exhibit, Burd Brains, will be displayed until Oct. 13. The exhibit celebrates the process of making imaginative art by hand and computer with more than 40 pieces, in the form of ink and digital drawings, plus several paintings in preparation for an upcoming children’s book project.

Another new addition is the library’s new 150-seat auditorium, that has the flexibility of being a smaller, confined space or a bigger, open space.

“The fact that it can be opened or closed is nice,” Stoll says. “You can utilize the space for meetings, or you can open it up.”

Speaking of meetings, the first level has several of the nearly 40 private rooms the entire library will have when renovations are completed: co-working spaces, artist studios and a production space that provide filmmaking, audio recording and game development learning opportunities. Many of those are on the second level with the Studio Services Department.

Some meeting rooms encircle the book area and the Film and Sound section on the first level. The Film and Sound section, “which you can hear when you walk in the door,” says Allen, has a DVD and movie selection on curved shelves with 50,000 items, and helps give the first level a bookstore feel.

There is also local history room that features print and digital materials focused on Richland County history and genealogy. Patrons can view historic images from this collection, which are going to be projected on the glass walls of this enclosed space.

Cafe under Rise Bakeshop chef

Attached to the first-level art gallery is a soon-to-be-opened cafe, scheduled to start serving later this fall.

Local chef Sarah Simmons has plans for it to be a “business incubator.” Aspiring restauranteurs can apply to start their business under Simmons’ tutelage at the library.

Simmons and her husband and business partner, Aaron Hoskins, are developing The Café menu featuring beverages, baked good, snacks, sandwiches and salads. They also plan to offer a selection of Rise Gourmet Goods & Bakeshop signature items.

While Simmons and Hoskins operate The Café in the fall, they also are putting the operational systems in place to turn The Café into a restaurant-operator residency program for the food and beverage industry. This program hopes to give aspiring restaurateurs a low-risk opportunity to experience running the day-to-day of a restaurant. Working closely with Richland Library, they plan to select the participants for the program scheduled to begin in January 2018.

Garden level updates

As far as what else to come at Richland Library Main? The garden level, home of the youth services department, is undergoing major changes.

Patrons will be able to enter the garden level directly from the lower parking lot behind the building. The upper parking lot will be a green space which will be used for events like a farmers market.

Inside the garden level, popular spaces like the nursing mothers’ room and the Wild Things mural will return. “All the favorites are back, with some new exciting additions,” Allen says.

There will be a play area behind the escalators, and a hangout space for teens. Having the children and teens spaces on the same level will makes it easier for families, especially during the transition years.

The teen area will feature a mural painted by Valdes, a public art project that utilizes bookmarks patrons drew.

Richland Library hopes to have the parking lot renovations completed by late October or early November. It hopes to open the garden level by the holidays.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 5:17 PM with the headline "How Richland Library is ‘creating a community hub’."