Look, as someone who lived through the complete renovation and redesign of 2002, I am a bit miffed about the whole "the library design dates back to 1974." No, only the library's exterior structure, some load-bearing walls and the location of SOME of the plumbing. I knew that library's design from 198...ok, 1989? to 2002 and from 2002 to present. I walk both regularly in my dreams.
Still, it should be bigger, so here's hoping it's usefully bigger!
I'm not actually against it and I hope it works for people, but since I grew up going there from when I was an infant, remember it well from early years, and started working at the library in 2001... I can assure you that the library design dates back to 2002. They added on a children's room! with towers! It was great!
my sister (who didn't work in the old one but was still a regular visitor and worked in the new one) says that if it lets them sell the renovation, that's good!
@platypus the misrepresentation does seem likely to annoy the many older community members who remember the redesign 😅
that said i def agree that some aspects of the library are due for an upgrade, particularly the lack of outdoor spaces (its fine if you drive in and park but the current library is weirdly intimidating to approach on foot right now) and i don’t particularly care if it’s due for an upgrade bc the 2000s were a long time ago or the 1970s were haha
@Satsuma oh yeah, I don't even know how you'd approach it on foot. I mean, I do... but like, coming from downtown generally it's quite weird. I almost never came on foot and getting to/from McDonald's when I worked there was a huge PITA (doubly so because of the complications of that McDonald's).
@platypus there’s a bus stop outside newark high school, so usually i’m coming up delaware ave which is like, technically walkable but also means you come up on the back of the building with basically no indication of where you should be heading to actually get inside. so weird to figure out, especially the first time I went. Which sucks because libraries should be welcoming to people traveling by bus/bike/foot! Those are usually the people most in need of library services!
I hope we can solidly blame that one on the 70’s and do something better with the new building!
@Satsuma did you live there pre-2001? (I’m trying to work through what’s memory and what’s dream—I know some things are real, I’m a little stuck on others). We might need to blame 2002.
@platypus I was living in Wilmington in the 2000’s! at the time I would have been using Wilmington Public Library, or Woodlawn Library while Wilmington was closed for renovations.
I moved to Newark in 2021, so my experiences re:walkability are all p recent
@Satsuma so here’s knowledge/memory
The original building had a door about 1/3 of the way down it. I haven’t been in a couple years but the current? teen section is just past where the entrance was. The circ desk was opposite, so not too much farther down from where it is now. If you turned right, children’s and it didn’t have the tower exactly but the hall and cafe had and some of the current kids area except the glass tower kids AND teen books.
@Satsuma then if you headed left there were card catalog/replaced by computers, on the streetside wall was romance (along with spinners) and some westerns on the wall. You walked back through open tables/reference. The whole back was adults, much more crowded.
The library was dark brown brick and orange and purple upholstery. SO dark and SO vivid. Each end had skylights.
Anyway that center door had a sidewalk from the parking lot. You have to walk nearly as far now but it’s indoor.
@platypus wow those are some color choices! i can’t tell if i’d be into it or find the whole thing overwhelming.
i think technically the door still exists but its been pretty hidden by landscaping (and maybe also permanently locked). The visual “front” of the building is p clearly the parking-lot entrance (which faces north) So coming from Delaware Ave you are seemingly supposed walk all the way past the building on the library ave sidewalk and then cut across the parking lot. If there was a south side entrance, or just some better landscaping on the south side indicating that its a public part of the library that people are welcome to hang out in it’d work a lot smoother imo
@platypus its always seemed odd to me bc yeah as you say the buildings location sure does seem to be across from the highschool on purpose. But then everything is oriented exactly backwards for actually making that smooth and easy (a choice which is then compounded by the two buildings sharing a bus stop on route 10, so even non-students are getting dropped off by the school and approaching from the southwest
