Cranberry library updates in progress
CRANBERRY TWP — The Cranberry Public Library — which Director Leslie Pallotta said is “not known” for being quiet — is humming with the sounds of power tools as workers refresh and add to the community hub.
When the renovations are over, likely in late February or early March, Pallotta said, she wants library patrons to be louder than usual, as she hopes the updates increase collaboration.
The biggest change to the library will be the addition of a makerspace, a glass-enclosed room stocked with equipment for residents to, well, make things.
“Makerspaces promote 21st-century job skills, the idea of collaboration and communication across generations, informal learning,” Pallotta said.
With a 3-D printer, a sewing machine, a laser engraver, soldering stations and more, the makerspace will be a hub for creativity and a hands-on learning environment.
“People can look into the space and see what’s happening in there, to encourage people and excite people,” Pallotta added.
The almost futuristic technologies in the makerspace — and perhaps the future of libraries — will also meet old technology and library systems there.
A Smith Corona electric typewriter serves as a “conversation piece,” Pallotta said, while a small section of the original card catalog will help store materials needed for the other machines.
“When we say technology, it doesn’t all have to be cutting edge,” she said. “We brought the typewriter and the old card catalog. There’s always a little nod to the past.”
With the nod to the past meshing with the gaze toward the future in the makerspace, the library hopes to refresh the idea of a library.
“It’s truly taking learning in a library setting from just consuming information to also creating information and learning in a hands-on environment,” Pallotta said. “Sort of Library 2.0, if you will.”
To serve as what Pallotta called the “living room of the community,” the library will invite collaboration in more ways than with the makerspace.
“We want that space to be a collaborative learning environment, where people can come in and learn from each other. Nobody’s an expert on any one thing,” she added.
Beyond the makerspace, the library will reduce the number of desktops and increase how many laptops it owns, allowing patrons who use the computer there to work with others.
The lounge likely will have new furniture, to both enable teamwork and to serve almost literally as Cranberry’s living room by inviting relaxation and conversation, Pallotta said.
With the past, present and future in one space, the library’s director said, Cranberry Public Library hopes to give back.
“We owe it to our community and the next generation to develop the skills that they’re going to need,” Pallotta said. “It’s nice to have the skills from the past, but we want our future to be a successful one and a good one.”
