By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Sylvie Martin went from room to room amid the bones of the new Auburn Public Library on Monday evening, snapping pictures with her cell-phone camera.

While city councilors and members of the library’s development committee got the official tour from Director Rosemary Waltos, Martin, a circulation assistant, checked out the things that mattered: where she was going to work.

“We were down in the cellar before,” she said. It was the first time she’d been in the building since June 2004, when the library closed and moved to Auburn Mall. She has another eight months before she’ll be able to move back in.

“I’m ready,” she said. “It’ll be good to come back home.”

Crews are midway through the construction project. They’ve gutted the old part of the building and nearly finished sealing the renovated portion from the elements. All of the floors are in place and metal studs give hints of how the finished library will work.

Martin’s new office will be on the middle floor of the library, next to massive windows looking out onto School Street. That floor contains the more active parts of the library – a much bigger teen section, audio-visual titles, popular fiction areas and a huge children’s library. Director Waltos said that’s her favorite part so far.

“It’s the gem of the project,” she said. It features two massive bay windows overlooking Court Street, directly across the street from the Bank of America. The bottom of the windows are about four feet off of the ground, too high for most tots. So Waltos said architects designed smaller windows, directly below them, each about two feet square.

“That way, the kids can have a view of their own and see what’s going on outside,” she said.

The library’s quieter uses are on the top floor. That includes the reference section, computer classrooms, offices and several quiet study areas. Two big skylights will illuminate that floor during daylight hours.

The bottom floor will be home to a cafe. There’s no vendor for the spot yet, but Waltos said she hopes to find someone to sell coffee, drinks and pastries.

“The cafe probably won’t open right when the library does,” she said. She hoped it would be going by the summer.

Renovations on the library began in June 2004. The renovated library, which includes all of the old library and a generous part of the land under the old City Building, will be about 30,000 square feet when it’s done. The old library was about 13,0000 square feet.

Planning for the expansion began in 1998, with volunteers raising about half the money for it through donations and grants. The city took on about $3.5 million in debt to pay for the rest of the work. In all, work should cost about $7 million, Waltos said.

Copy the Story Link