Kent Regional Library opens with new technology, bathrooms

Six months may not seem like a long time, but take it from the standpoint of a library drop box.

Six months is a long time for the books to pile up.

That’s probably the greatest challenge staff at the Kent Regional Libraryare dealing with at this point, given that the bustling library was closed that long for a major renovation project.

But considering what staff are now seeing, in the light of a more efficient way to check in books and to manage the public space, that stack of books to check back in is a small price to pay.

Especially now that there’s a more efficient to do those check-ins.

“It’s ergonomic and it certainly is a time saver,” said Kent Managing Library Judy Renzema, of the new automated book-return system that was a critical part of the renovation project. The renovations, which also included relocating meeting rooms and restrooms into the library’s interior, was completed earlier this month. The library officially reopened, complete with a new interior paint job, March 6.

Before the library was closed down in September, Renzema said they were seeing about 1,000 patrons a day.

Now that they’re back in business, and no longer operating out of temporary storefront headquarters in downtown Kent, Renzema said the flow of patrons is coming back up, presumably as word has been getting around.

“We’re not quite back up that far,” she said. “But it will come.”

Kent is one of a slew of libraries in the King County Library System that has seen major renovations over the last several years, thanks to a $172 million capital bond levy that library district voters approved back in 2004. According to Julie Brand, KCLS community relations and marketing manager, the bond “included something pretty much for every library,” when a plan for the bond was developed, with input from the community through various workshops.

In the case of the Kent Regional Library “we determined what was needed was an upgrade and a remodel,” Brand said.

Today, Renzema stands in a reconfigured library that now houses its meeting rooms and restrooms within the library proper, along with a public entrance that is easier to manage.

Prior to the fix, the restrooms and the meeting rooms were out in the lobby and largely away from the eyes of staffers.

Renzema called the arrangement “not safe,” given that anybody could have been hanging out in unwanted ways with the previous setup.

Brand, at KCLS headquarters in Issaquah, noted the new lobby was designed to be a lot easier for staff to manage.

“With the way it’s configured, it has much more visible sight lines,” she said, adding also that the restrooms and meeting rooms, since they are in the actual library, now “help draw people into the (library) space.”

While the patrons may notice the new floor plan, it’s the technology that now sits out in the new lobby that should really grab their attention.

The self check-in portals mean their books and other materials will be checked in within minutes, keeping their library cards up to date and ready to check out more materials. And from the staff’s frame of reference that new system also means the labor-intensive way they used to check in books is a thing of the past.

Gone is that “drudge work they had to do hour after hour,” Renzema said, noting that under the old they had to keep staff sitting there, eight hours a day, checking in books.

With the new system, returned books are now run through a conveyor-belt system that simply loads the books, by their digital codes, on special wheeled tote carts. The easy-to-handle carts are simply wheeled off to their respective sections, books in order, and staffers re-shelve the volumes.

And while a lot of patrons are probably happy to have the full compliment of books and DVDs at their disposal again in the reopened library, Renzema said her facility’s bank of 50 computers for public use has probably found some users appreciative to have at their fingertips again.

“Our neighboring libraries are very happy we’re open,” she said smiling, noting that’s where computer users went, when Kent shut down.

Happy too should be the folks who attended the Kent Regional Library’s various public activities. These were pared back considerably when the library shut down. You can find a full slate of activities on the library Web site at www.kcls.org/kent.

Learn more

Kent Regional Library

212 Second Ave. N., Kent

Hours

10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday – Thursday

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday

1-5 p.m. Sunday

Visit the Web at www.kcls.org/kent