Taking a tour of the new library in progress: A 21st Century building to serve all Islanders

My tour of the new Shelter Island Library expansion with Library Director Terry Lucas and Board President Henry Fayne began at the same entrance I passed through when I first entered the library 30 years ago. 

It’s a place that I love, where I browsed through (and took home) books from carts by the door and novels from the stacks. On rainy Memorial Days, I watched the Parade from the shelter of the portico.  

The entrance is where the quaint past of the old library ends. Beyond the threshold is a place that has finally grown enough to match the Island’s population, and preferences. Created in the days before there was a computer in everything, when libraries were hushed spaces for researchers, the new library feels like a long-anticipated extension of a beloved family home. It’s a better, roomier, more comfortable library, and you owe it to yourself to come take a look. Director Terry Lucas will gladly provide you with a hardhat.

The tours, which begin on Memorial Day, are part of an effort by Ms. Lucas and the Library Board to have absolute transparency about what the new library will include and why. They’ve heard the wild stories of excessive spending, and the creation of a library that is too big for its britches. “If you heard we are putting in three fireplaces I’ll show you,” she said. “You can see all of our fireplaces.” (There is one.)

The library of today must accommodate people on a mission, whether that means researching a biology assignment or copying their tax return. The new features of the library are the result of years of watching users of the library and responding to their needs. “Many people do not have printers at home,” said Ms. Lucas. “There’s not a public printer on the Island, except for us.” That’s why the main level right by the entrances features an office center, where you can come to do copying, faxing, or use a computer and has a shelf so you can work with your papers. A place to sit down and have a coffee or snack is a new public space for people taking a break.

The renovation required moving and storing tens of thousands of books, and the main adult reading room will be the new home for the fiction and non-fiction stacks. The room is spacious, and well-lit with a central gas fireplace and all the nooks and crannies that make space for relaxing year-round with a book or finding a new one.

Most of the lower level of the old library is transforming into a place for children of all ages; a children’s library, an adjacent space for toddlers, and a room for young adults, with space for gaming and collaborative work and a separate room for group study. The new library has a “maker space” a place where anyone can use devices such as 3-D printers, sewing machines, art supplies and electronics to create with their own hands.

Anyone who has searched the Island for a public restroom will welcome the four bathrooms on two floors; one designed for family activities like diaper changing. 

As someone who likes talks, plays and community meetings, I’m excited about a large all-purpose space in the new section of the lower level that can be used as a gallery, a performance space or for meetings that seat up to 150 people. It opens onto a new outdoor plaza adjacent to the smaller one that has always been there.

The old library included an important feature of modern libraries, a “Library of Things,” where people can go to check out tools, toys, or games. Housed in a shed that made it hard to access, it had a very limited inventory. The renovation puts the Library of Things in a large closet next to the main circulation desk and expands it, Ms. Lucas said. “It includes a telescope, it’s got silly sprinklers, an outside movie theater kit, croquet and bocce ball sets, Wi-Fi hotspots, board games, scary skull cake pans for Halloween, and a bunny pan for Easter.” 

Some of the thoughtful planning of the library renovation is only obvious on close inspection. The roof will have solar panels generating energy to run the library, and two EV chargers for public use. An extensive sprinkler system with a dedicated tank holding thousands of gallons of water will protect the building and its contents; the old building had only fire extinguishers. A state-of-the-art IA (Innovative Alternative) waste system is being installed to protect the aquifer.

The new library will beef up the storm resilience of the Town by providing a place, in coordination with the Town Emergency Management Team and the school, to provide meeting areas, electricity, heat and community when the lights go out and winds blow hard.

Hard-hat tours are available weekdays after 3 p.m. and on selected Saturdays through July. Contact Director Terry Lucas at [email protected] to arrange a tour.