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Community Corner

Upstairs/Downstairs Renovations at Rye Library

Mysteries and Bios move downstairs, facelift upstairs as part of a $200,000 (and counting) renovation expected to last throughout September

The latest comings and goings at the Rye Library include a long overdue renovation that is now a work in progress, at least $200,000 worth as of last count.

“The last renovation was back in the 1960s,” according to Rye Free Reading Room executive director Kitty Little.

The current renovation essentially involves moving two of the library’s most popular collections –Mysteries and Biographies –from the second floor to the main floor and encasing them in new shelving next to the Tech Center

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The project –expected to go on for the next few weeks –will move Teen Services upstairs to the second floor, creating a teen-friendly space for teen collections, computers and other media

As part of the upstairs/downstairs makeover, the biography reading room will also get a new high tech meeting space that will be available for rentals for the cash-strapped library.

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Ms. Little explained that the $200Gs in funding for the work came from a matching grant program: $100Gs from the state and a matching $$100,000 from Mildred Weisman.

The project will also provide new furniture for media and magazines on the main floor as part of the last stages of the state grant implementation the library received with the help of State Senator Suzi Oppenheimer.

And while it wasn’t as large a cash transfusion as the library hoped, additional funding came from renting space that, in effect, turned part of the RFRR into a set for the July filming for the movie “Robot & Frank” staring Frank Langella and Susan Sarandon.

“The  (movie) donation the library received will have a big impact on our planning for the fall,” according to Ms. Little, who declined to be specific about the amount the library received from the film rental for using most the RFRR main floor for around a week.

“We wee happy that our highest demand services were open and available throughout the (filming) project, and the production crew made sure everything was exactly in place when they left,” said Ms. Little. “Hopefully the film will come out this winter and we can arrange a screening at the library.”

Not everyone on the library staff is happy about the renovations, believing that more of the money should have gone into books that would improve the collection rather than a cosmetic facelift.

In a casual look at the Mystery collection, for example, this writer noticed the entire “N” section was missing. “No Jonathan Nebo let alone any other ‘N’ named writers?” we asked the reference desk librarian, referring specifically to Nebo, the best-selling Norwegian author of books like “The Snowman” and “Redbreast.”

“Maybe ‘The Snowman’ and ‘Redbreast’ are out, but I’ll look into the rest of the ‘N’ situation,” the librarian said.

But we were pleased to see that the rest of the Scandinavian Mystery Big 3 were well represented, from Hillary Mankell of the Kurt Wallander series fame to the late Stieg Larsson, creator of “The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo” trinity.

So were the Scandinavian's American counterparts, the Michael Connellys, John Sandfords and James Lee Burkes, creators, respectively, of detective fiction staples such as Harry Bosch, Deputy Chief Lucas Davenport and Dave Robicheaux among others.

“But make sure you get Harry Hole back into the mystery mix ASAP,” we said to the reference librarian, referring the flawed, alcoholic yet idealistically driven Nebo detective creation who was among the missing “N” names in the M (for Mystery) collection.

Ms. Little pointed out that reserving a book from another library is always a relatively simple option (although you won't always get it right away).

“Remember also that placing a request for any book you don’t find is easy to do from home (www.ryelibrary.org) or at the library (e-mail reference@ryelibrary.org, or simply stop by with your request),” according to Ms. Little. “If another Westchester library has it, we’ll get it for you (although the timing in getting your request may vary from a few days to several months, depending on the popularity of the book or DVD involved)."

But even as the upstairs/downstairs renovations are going on, Ms. Little is grateful that the library essentially escaped the wrath of Tropical Storm Irene.

“We came through relatively unscathed except for some wet carpetinging in the (basement) Children’s Room, and hopefully a local carpet company (Carpet Trends) can  salvage that,” she said. “That would save us the cost of new carpeting, which could be pretty expensive.”

Whatever the cost, it would be a lot less than the extensive damage done to the Children’s Room during the last flood when Blind Brook overflowed four years ago, leaving behind an estimated $80,000 damages in its wake.

But that was before Ms. Little came on aboard around a year ago.

 This time around advance warning about the storm gave the library staff time to move books, DVDs, furniture and computers around to higher and safer ground so it could open as scheduled post-Irene with minimal damage and disruption.

And now things are looking a lot better library-wise, upstairs/downstairs.

 

 

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