The new and improved Callaway County Public Library opened for business on November 10. The most prominent new feature is the enlarged south entrance, which is now the main entrance. A double set of automatic doors level with the parking lot makes for more convenient access. Just inside the main entrance, friendly library staff greet visitors from the new circulation desk. Improved lighting, bright colors of paint and brand new furniture give the whole building a cozy atmosphere, ideal for settling down with a good book.

On the lower level is the children’s area, featuring some very popular “whale” chairs, three children’s computers and a computerized “Peek-A-Book” kiosk. Across the hallway is the Friends Room which now has a partition that can divide the room into two smaller rooms. The old stage is gone, new storage cabinets have been added and the kitchen is also completely remodeled. The Friends Room is where library programs take place and can also be reserved by non-profit groups for meetings. On the other end of the main level are the restrooms with all new fixtures. The stairs are completely new too, and now when you walk up them, they don’t creak!

As you enter the upper level, you immediately think how bright the building is now. The ceilings in the original Carnegie portion of the building were raised to expose the top of the windows, and the brown window shades were removed throughout, allowing more natural light to shine in. In the Carnegie portion of the building is the fiction, genre and teen fiction, and large print collections. The new computer center, equipped with nine Internet computers, sits behind the Reference Desk. Architects creatively reused the interior doors taken from the Carnegie entrance as windows here. The adult non-fiction and reference collections, microfilm machines, newspapers, magazines, CDs, DVDs and videos fill the east side of the upstairs.

In all, there are 55,000 items in the library, ten telephones, nine Internet computers, six public catalog computers, three children’s computers, two copiers, two fax machines, one self-check machine and two microfilm machines in the building. There are also 80 new reader’s chairs plus 40 chairs for the Friends Room. Rounding out the interior improvements were the repairs and additions to the heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) system, which you cannot see, but we hope you will feel.

This remodeling project began in 2002 when the Market Street steps were refurbished, and the outside of the building was given a face-lift that included sand-blasting, replacing bricks, tuck-pointing and painting. In February 2004, the library was moved to a temporary location in order to expedite the remodeling process.

The CCPL originally opened in July of 1912 and was funded through a $4,000 bond issue and a grant from Andrew Carnegie. In 1960, the Fulton Free Public Library became part of the Callaway County Library District and, thus, the DBRL system. The west side addition was completed in 1984. One of only 2,000 Carnegie libraries nationwide, the building is on the state historic register.