SEQUIM — If you’re hungry for free movies, free knowledge and the freedom to roam the Internet, you’re in luck.
The Sequim Library’s face lift is done, and on Saturday a throng of 1,143 people came to admire its new features, branch manager Keitha Owen said.
After more than three months of remodeling, the 57,000 items in the library at 630 N. Sequim Ave., beckon again, from new displays, a new teen section, a redecorated children’s area and arrays of magazines and newspapers beside the picture window.
As people poured in the door Saturday, Owen sighed with relief.
“We moved everything at least four times” during the renovation that began when the library closed Jan. 19.
And even after the tide of humanity had washed through the branch, there were still plenty of goodies on the shelves.
A sampling: The Twilight series of novels by Stephenie Meyer; “The Sopranos” on DVD; a Robin Williams comedy concert on CD; Have a New Kid by Friday, Dr. Kevin Leman’s manual on improving your child’s attitude, behavior and character; the best seller A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
The library also has 15 public computers, Owen said, in the main and teen sections.
The havens for children and teenagers aren’t the only new facets, added Paula Barnes, director of the county-wide North Olympic Library System.
Civic information center
A civic information center will be finished in about four weeks, she said.
It’ll provide voter information, local environmental impact reports and other government documents, and “anything that has to do with civic engagement.”
The branch’s remodeling happened thanks to a $190,000 bequest from the estate of Helen Adams, a $150,000 gift from the Friends of the Sequim Library and about $61,000 from the library system.
In keeping with current economic conditions, the system Board of Trustees last year opted to fix up the 26-year-old, 6,000-square-foot building instead of seeking a property-tax increase to fund a new library.
The Saturday crowd was diverse but united in their appetite for the library’s contents.
Margaret Lotzgesell, 84, Olivia Webb, 4, and Christie Honore, 13, were among those who wandered among the shelves and spines, looking entranced.
Webb obtained her library card on Saturday, as Treva Webster’s daughters Ceara, 6, and Tabitha, 9, dived into the sunlit kids’ section.
“They’ve been waiting anxiously,” the girls’ mom said.
“It’s nice to see people support our library,” added Lotzgesell, who’s lived in Sequim all her life.
“And TV is so lousy. I’d rather read.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
