Library continues renovation talks

The Putnam County Library Board wrapped up its monthly meetings for the year on Wednesday evening, in which it once again discussed the children's room renovations.

After several meetings with the architects at OMS, designing the children's area is well underway. The new room will include a fake tree, which will be located around the pillar where the computers are currently placed. It will also include new shelving, seating areas and more.

At this time, it has not been determined when work will actually begin in the area. However, patrons will not have to worry, as the area will remain open while work is being done.

Board member Lisa McCoy presented a list of items that the library may like to purchase to furnish the room. However, the library board along with the Children's Renovation Committee and the new Library Director Grier Carson, who will start in January, will have to weigh in before anything can be purchased.

"Yes we need to spend that money, but I don't know if these are exactly the things we want to buy," McCoy said. "He definitely has a vision for what it's going to look like and it's probably going to tweak a little bit from what we've done. So, us meeting and agreeing (on things) isn't really going to help things until he's really a part of it."

The board also heard an update on the status of the e-book rentals as the library just recently renewed its contract with Baker and Taylor as many have had trouble connecting to the system.

"At this point we're going to wait till Grier looks at it," co-interim director Lisa Barker said. "There's a flaw in about every system that you look at. There's not one system that everybody just loves."

Barker added that there are some systems out there that have greater reviews, but they are also a lot more money.

"There I don't know how many different kinds of devices on different versions. Everyone brings in these devices and some of them will work on it and some of them won't. A Nook and a Kindle were put out by Amazon and Barnes and Nobel," co-interim director Pat Newman explained. "They wanted you to buy their product and not bring it to the library and download other things. So, there's a reason why the industry is kind of young and it hasn't shaken out a lot of the bumps yet."

The board also approved several encumbrances of $49,200 for furniture and equipment and $14,490 for HVAC repair.