The temporary Main Library, located in the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium, includes a small space for reading and working in addition to a collection of best-sellers. It also includes basic services such as book return, book check-out, and requesting items. Photo by Christina Chen.

Students from Palo Alto High School respond to the closing of the City of Palo Alto Main Library, which closed on April 30 for renovations.

The temporary Main Library is currently open at the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium, according to a City of Palo Alto press release. For the duration of the renovation, the Downtown Library will extend its hours until 8 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, while the College Terrace Library will be open on Thursdays from noon until 6 p.m.

The building is scheduled to open around 18 months later in Oct. 2014.

Palo Alto High School’s four student-run a capella groups performed on the Quad last Friday in what they hope to be an annual competition.

Vikapella, Folk Yes!, the Heartbreakers and the Heartbeats, Paly choir’s four a capella groups, each performed one or two songs for Paly’s student body, which was instructed to cheer for its favorite group at the end of the performances. This lunchtime performance was put on by choir director Michael Najar to showcase the talent of the student-led groups, as well as to advertise Paly Choir’s Small Ensemble concert, which will take place Thursday, according to junior Hannah Wilson.

Wilson, who is a member of the all-female group the Heartbeats, believes performing on the Quad is a great way to publicize the unique talent of Paly choir’s a capella groups.

“This is our first time performing on the quad, but we are all in favor of all the publicity we can get,” Wilson said.

The Heartbeats, along with the three other groups, are completely self-directed and student-run.

“We pick our own music, our own rehearsal time, our performances,” Wilson said. “There is no director over the a capella groups, although advice is always welcome.”

Wilson looks forward to future choir performances on the Quad.

“We will grab at any opportunity [to perform] and would love to sing on the Quad again,” she said.

The week-long excursion, which took place over spring break, was part of an exchange with Lithgow High School, in Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. Teachers from Lithgow visited Paly in October.

According to senior Scotty Bara, who took part in the trip to Australia, Paly’s three attendees informed Lithgow students about American photography.

“We visited the school [Lithgow High School] and presented to three classes about photography, art and journalism in the United States,” Bara said.

While they enjoyed the ability to spread their own lessons, they also had the chance to familiarize themselves with Australian culture.

“Australia is an amazing country,” Bara said. “We visited the [Sydney] Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Royal Botanic Gardens, The Rocks, Chinatown, a small surf town called “Manly” and many other places in Sydney. We then stayed … in a small town called Katoomba in the Blue Mountains.”

Along the way, the students took pictures of the scenery.

“I mostly took pictures of the amazing landscape … to show family and friends,” said senior trip-member Oskar Ehrensvärd.

Overall, the students took away a variety of different meanings from their experience. Upon return, Bara felt a stronger connection to nature.

“I learned to appreciate the beauty of nature a lot more,” Bara said.

Ehrensvärd, on the other hand, was inspired to travel the globe.

“I already knew that I wanted to do more traveling in the future,” Ehrensvärd said, “[but] after this experience I’m even more excited to travel and see the rest of the world.”