We waited until Seth got home from his golf tournament and went all together to the NEW Kent District Library (Kentwood Branch). The library building is beautiful!!! It's a huge improvement over the prior building, but not everything about the place is a huge improvement (in my humble opinion).
I was disappointed in the layout of the children's section. In the old building, the books were in a L-shape around the play area making it very easy to watch the kids while looking for books for them. In the new building, the play area is farther away from the stacks which will make it more difficult to look for books while keeping track of the kids. We'll see how that goes in future visits. Also, nothing was labeled. I'm sure they're still trying to set everything up, but there weren't even temporary signs up on the lower level. The volume of materials was down, too, though I'm sure that had something to do with them extending the due dates for all materials during the two-week move. They certainly have room to grow, though, so that's exciting! And the view! The view behind the library is a beautiful field...complete with blue sky, a setting sun, and white puffy clouds on the evening of our visit.
While the train table, a highlight from the previous location, didn't make it over to the new place, neither Koen or Ty said anything about it! There are a number of play things to keep them busy during our upcoming visits: an airplane-shaped play area, white board complete with magnets, and a grocery store area (although the shopping cart was taken away from some kids while we were there). I wonder how long it will take before they realize the library doesn't have trains anymore!?!
Seth and I each took a turn venturing upstairs into the adult sections. We didn't have much time to look around, and I'm not sure how often I'll be trekking upstairs with three kids in tow when we go it alone. I liked the all-on-one-floor layout better, but that's just from a parent's point-of-view.
I'm sure we'll all grow to love this new library, but change always time some time to get used to, doesn't it?
Hi Valerie,
ReplyDeleteWe're glad you like our new Kentwood branch (for the most part). And, you're right, there are certainly a few things yet to be done (completion of branch signage being one of them). We're still working to perfect everything but we certainly hope you'll come back and visit us. Thanks for providing the feedback and don't hesitate to let us know how we're doing. :-)
Eric DeHaan
KDL Communications Manager