As early as late this year, construction could start on a new entrance, removed lockers and a possible second floor mezzanine for Palo Alto High School’s library, according to librarian Rachel Kellerman.
The library committee is deciding on various options for the library, but Kellerman explains that the comittee has looked at several key choices for changes to make. Among these is a mezzanine, a second floor loft, for the library.“It’s possible that we would do that [build a mezzanine],” Kellerman said. “The architect presented some preliminary plans of how you could lay it out.”
Kellerman is skeptical, however, about putting in a mezzanine of other cheaper methods could be used to increase the floor space in the library.
“It would be better to spend the money to make sure that this building was how we want it to be than to add a mezzanine if we don’t need the space,” Kellerman said” “But once again nothings been decided yet.”
“The question would be what could you put up there that you don’t need to supervise,” Kellerman said.
Another option that has been explored would be to remodel the entrances to the library.“My personal preference is to enter right onto the quad from the library so that we could take advantage of natural light, which would be aesthetically pleasing and energy saving,” Kellerman said. ”It’s possible that we could have one entrance here [where the entrance is now] for the administration team and one entrance in the middle where the ERC is for the library. We could put a classroom on that corner where the English offices are.”One additional effect of creating a larger, more open main entrance to the library would be the removal of the back entrance to the library, Kellerman said. This means that the library will no longer serve as a walking path from the quad to the language building. Instead, students will have to circumnavigate the library, creating a reason for the possible removal of the lockers around the library to create more walking space.The thinking is that, with the new social studies and math building, walking traffic around the library might become even more congested, Kellerman explained. With the lockers removed, students will have much more space around the library.Several different options for the interior of the library are being considered as well.“One possibility is obviously moving the offices into the instructional building,” Kellerman said. “When math and social studies move into that [new math and social studies] building and then media arts moves into that [new media arts building] building, things will be freed up. That’s where we’re at right now — discussing who’s gonna move where.”Because a mezzanine might be expensive, the inside of the library may see changes in the way books are handled as well. Like Gunn’s library and many university libraries, Paly’s library may soon be using high density stacks on wheels, moving collections to storage when not in use.“You can roll them together and move them apart when you need those books,” Kellerman said. “Basically what we want to do is keep in our browsing section what kids want access to out on the floor so that we can take care of the [other] collections by maybe increasing our storage selection.”Kellerman thinks that the new remodeled library will serve as not just a library but a hub — a center of campus.“This is really a hotbed place,” Kellerman said.