Upgrades coming for Dakota County Library at Farmington

Talk about it

With approval last week from the Dakota County Board of Commissioners, work will begin in earnest early next year on a planned remodeling of the Dakota County Farmington Library.

Library manager Mary Scheide plans to start working with facilities management staff sometime after Jan. 1 to come up with final plans for the $1.755 million project, which among other things will incorporate 3,500 square feet of space formerly occupied by Intermediate School District 917’s IDEA School.

A needs assessment conducted last year identified new study areas and a small meeting room to complement the library’s current meeting room as likely additions. The project will also likely include a reconfiguration of the library’s layout.

“A lot of it has to do with expanding into the extra space,” Scheide said. “We will gain a pretty good amount of square footage.”

Early discussions about the changes have also focused on technology and how it is best implemented in the library. Scheide expects the revamped library to continue offering computers for public use, but there will also likely be concessions to the fact more and more people are carrying Internet-capable devices with them on a regular basis in the form of smart phones and laptop or tablet computers.

“There’s certainly still a demand for our public Internet workstations, and we’ll continue to have those. But there’s also a recognition that one thing people want is a place where they can sit down and connect to our wi-fi and use their own device,” Scheide said.

Construction on the renovation is expected to begin in 2013 or 2014. Whatever form the changes ultimately take, Scheide said she and other staff at the library are anxious see what they can do to make the facility better.

“I think it will be very exciting,” she said. “I’m sure it will be a lot of work, but I think we’re all ready to get started.

“I have a feeling it’s not going to be fast enough for us here, but we’ll try to be patient.”

Tags: dakota county, news, farmington, community