Library checks out of service until mid-January

Thousands of books, dozens of shelves, and one of the school’s most popular areas will be closed for five weeks starting monday while the library undergoes renovations.

I think it just opens it up so that more classes can be in here at the same time,

— English teacher David Barr

“Liberty, along with Wakeland, we are renovating the shelves in our library to turn it into a flexible library,” librarian Chelsea Hamilton said. “We are removing all the books off all the shelves and then they are coming in and they will cut down all the shelves to 48 inches tall and put them on caster so we have a completely flexible library. We can rearrange it in whatever way classes need it, student need it, those in the community need it, so it will be really accessible to anybody.”

Hamilton hopes the additional space created from a flexible library will allow for more classes to take advantage of the library

I am hoping to set up at least three different classroom spaces so we can have more classes in at the same time, and if classes are coming in and need more space we can more stuff out of the way for like presentations,” Hamilton said. “It just really gives us more opportunities to meet the needs of our classes than it is right now.”

For teachers, the library renovations could change how they use the space

“I think it just opens it up so that more classes can be in here at the same time,” English teacher David Barr said. “It’s a hard issue we run into so that’ll make those schedule conflicts a lot easier. It lets us have more kids in here when we are in here, we’ll have more space to spread out and it’ll just make them more comfortable.”

What do you think of the library renovations?

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The library is scheduled to be closed until Jan. 11, but Hamilton does not want that to stop students from reading.

“Come in and check out any books that you want before it’s completely closed and download the Sora app on your phone,” Hamilton said. “It runs through the district and is also partnered up with the Frisco Public Library and the Plano Public Library and you can check out ebooks on your phone anywhere, you just have to have your library card.”

We can rearrange it in whatever way classes need it, student need it, those in the community need it, so it will be really accessible to anybody,

— librarian Chelsea Hamilton

Some students feel as if the new changes will be an obstacle, but the renovated library  will be worth the wait.

“I feel like the idea is interesting just because like, it does, like how they said on Wingspan earlier, allow for more like classroom space,” senior Deepika Yerva said. “So that’ll give more classes, opportunities to get the resources in the library that they might need for classes. But I feel like closing the library for five weeks does have an impact of the lot of people go there just to go there for advisory or to study. So that will probably just be a bit of a burden for some people, but and also like I really do like to read so getting books there might be a bit difficult because it’s more convenient to get both from the school and going to public libraries. We have to go out of your way, but maybe in the end, it’ll be worth it. But obviously right now, it feels a bit weird without a library.”