The renovation is part of Dayton Metro Library’s Libraries for a Smarter Future Project.
“In 2012, we were really fortunate that voters approved $187 million bond issue to renovate the entire Dayton Metro Library system,” said Jayne Klose, Dayton Metro Library community engagement manager.
The system, which currently has 20 branches, will consolidate and have 16 newly built or renovated branches by 2018.
Kettering-Moraine branch staff will work at nearby branches — the Wilmington Stroop Branch Library at 3980 Wilmington Pike and the West Carrollton Branch Library at 300 E. Central Ave. during construction. Patrons are also being encouraged to use those branches.
Fairmont Presbyterian Church will host children’s storytimes and Christ United Methodist Church host the teen programming.
“The first small renovation we did, we were able to find a space in the neighborhood and serve them,” Klose said. “With Kettering being landlocked but also having two wonderful libraries so close, it made the most sense to close it. Get it done quickly and move them back into the great new library.”
The renovation will include an expanded community room which will be available to people who reserve it even when the library is closed. The library will see an added quiet reading room, a group study room and two tutor rooms.
One of the biggest takeaways from input meetings with patrons was increasing accessibility to the library outside of its business hours.
“Wherever we can stop quickly and grab things and go, just makes it so much easier for everyone,” Huntley said.
Patrons who can’t stop at the library during regular hours can call ahead and have their reserve books placed in a locker. The lockers will be located in a vestibule open 24 hours.
“When you come in after hours, you swipe your card, the locker opens. You take your books and you’re good to go,” Huntley explained.
Library staff hope another new technology will allow books to be checked in more quickly, enabling them to spend more time on the floor assisting patrons.
“As soon as you return the book through our book drops, it will automatically discharge it. So it gets it to the shelf quicker, but along with that it sorts it into children’s books into one bin, teen books in another bin,” Huntley said.
Hilda Miller of Kettering visits the branch almost everyday to visit staff who she now considers her friends and to work on family geneology research.
She said it will be hard not to come to the library everyday, but she thinks of a cartoon she has hanging at home.
“A dinosaur lying on its back, with the x’s on its eyes to show it’s dead and underneath it says, ‘Adapt or Die.’ And that’s exactly what we’re doing,” she said.
About the Author