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Published Thursday, February 16, 2012 in Local

Photo by Jeffrey Leo

Basic construction is complete on the Coweta County Library System’s new Senoia branch library on Pylant Street adjacent to Marimac Lakes Park.

New Library: 'Basic construction completed' for new Senoia branch

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

It's been a long time coming, but the new Senoia branch library is almost ready.

"The basic construction of the project is completed," said Barbara Osborne-Harris, Coweta Public Library System director.

Exterior work that remains includes painting, landscaping, and paving of the parking lot, which is scheduled for this week.

Lots of interior work is being done now, according to Osborne-Harris. "They've finished sanding the [wallboard] and started priming walls," she said. The heating and air conditioning ductwork, flooring, lighting, fixtures, and some millwork remain.

"It is really crunch time in terms of all those interior finishes and painting," Harris said. "I'm hoping at this point to get the building from the contractor, probably, sometime in March."

The library is located on Pylant Street, adjacent to Senoia's Marimac Lakes Park. It's situated next to the main lake, and large windows take advantage of the view.

Once the building is turned over to Coweta County, there will still be plenty of work to do.

The county's information technology department will be running wiring for all the computers and other technology, as well as for wireless connections.

Shelving can be installed as soon as the walls are painted and the carpet is down, Osborne-Harris said.

"The other big job we're going to have is preparing the current books and other items at Senoia for circulation," Osborne-Harris said. Each book will have to be tagged for the self-checkout system, she said.

The exiting Senoia Area Library will be closing at the end of February because the lease is up on the building, which is located in downtown Senoia on Main Street.

"The building has been sold. The lease is up at the end of March," Osborne-Harris said. She said the library system "had an agreement" with the new owner "that we could stay in the building until we were really ready. I think the new owner has been gracious to allow us to live our lease out. He doesn't have to do that," she said.

Once the old library closes, library staff will work on transitioning the collection, a project that's difficult to do when the library is open.

Not everything will be moving to the new location. "We're taking this opportunity to also weed out our collection. We're looking at our non-fiction titles to make sure they are still timely," Osborne-Harris said. "We're also looking at the condition. The ones that are not timely and that are in poor condition won't be taken to the new library."

The books that are going to make the move will first be shipped to the Central Library to be prepared, she said.

Osborne-Harris estimated getting the collection ready to go will take "at least two more months of work."

The Senoia location will be the third new library opened since Osborne-Harris became library system director. The first one was the Central Library in east Coweta; then Grantville got an expanded and updated library.

Osborne-Harris will be glad to move out of the construction phase.

"It will be nice for me personally," she said. "Although I think we have an awesome library system, people have yet to see what we can really become. It will be nice to have a primary focus, on service delivery. I will have more time to be able to concentrate on that rather than building facilities."

But there will also be a downside. New buildings come with the need to find funding for new books. "We're going to be challenged next year. We don't have any new funding," she said. "So it is going to be quite a challenge to maintain collections."

One thing that is currently lacking that she would like to see is e-books, Osborne-Harris said.

When a library system purchases a copy of an e-book, library patrons can download it to their e-reader devices. When the book is due, "it will disappear off your device" and will be "released back to the library so someone else can borrow" it, she said.

There's currently no funding for e-books, she said.

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