Marblehead library trustees consider changes to Abbot

MARBLEHEAD – Abbot Public Library trustees are considering the possibility of a children?s and youth center on the lowest level of the library building – but cost is something they will have to consider before they make a decision.Arrowstreet Inc. design consultant Scott Pollack showed the library trustees new designs Monday evening, in which the children?s room remained in its present location and the library added a youth center, a café, a classroom and stacks for young peoples? books.The meeting room and gallery, which presently occupy that level, would move to the main floor. Pollack also proposed a deck adjacent to the main floor reading room, which would lead to the library?s Secret Garden.Pollack admitted that this design was “a fairly radical proposal.”?The question is,” he asked the trustees, “are these uses in the right places?”The main section of the lower level currently includes a meeting room, children?s room, art gallery and a small food preparation area. It also includes a separate young adult room for reading, activities and Internet access. Both areas can be accessed by stairs from the main floor and by the library elevator. The two areas are separated by a wall, but since the elevator has doors on both ends, teens can pass through it to the other section.The first proposal the trustees considered was swapping the locations of the young adult room and meeting room and leaving both on the lowest level.Trustee Jean Howe said she would like to see more young people using the library.Maura Phelan Murnane reminded her colleagues, however, that technology is constantly changing the ways in which people obtain information and future libraries will be “computer driven.”Chairman Phil Sweeney said the trustees should discuss the possibilities at next month?s meeting and consider the financial constraints that they will face.No matter which plan they approve, Sweeney said, “This has to be done incrementally, so that it will morph into the library of the future.”