by Darleen Thao

Eau Claire Memorial’s new library is officially opened to students and faculty, with new and improved elements everywhere around the space. The renovation of the library took years to initiate, and students finally have the opportunity to utilize new features the library has to offer.

“I think the positive feedback has been awesome … There’s probably something for everyone here, so we want everyone to feel welcome and stop by,” said Annette Novak, Memorial’s library assistant and the Media & Tech Clerk.

“I was thrilled. We have been talking about doing this remodel for about 7 years. So, it’s been back and forth; like we’re gonna do it, we don’t have enough money, we’re gonna do it, we don’t have enough money,” said Rebecca Wojahn, Memorial’s librarian and the Media & Tech Integration Specialist.

“We had kind of a plan in place … I knew, for example, we wanted tech support much more out in the open, we knew we wanted to redo the conference rooms, we knew we wanted more comfy furniture,” Wojahn said. “So then we started meeting with our building and ground’s people and architects and we told them what we wanted. They came up with some designs and just built from there.”

Some exciting additions in the library are the Maker Space for students, which includes 3D printers, a button maker, and more artistic and creative tools, extra classrooms for a larger work space, and anew tech support window right at the entrance of the library.

“Our beautiful tech [support] window [is] gonna be really nice for a couple different reasons … It’s much more obvious for kids to be able to see where to go for tech support. It also allows us to like, back each other up a little better, you know?” Wojahn said.

The atmosphere in the library has changed as well.

“There’s a couple things that happened that I didn’t know I wanted and that’s so nice; I really love the lighting in here and the ceiling treatments. I never really thought of the library as a dark space until they got this lighting,” said Wojahn.

The new space was a team effort from faculty, Memorial’s custodial and maintenance teams, administration, and the building advisors. Jeff Nestor, the general manager for facilities, manages buildings all around the district. He oversaw the process for Memorial’s new library and other new construction in the Eau Claire schools.

Wojahn is most excited for how the library will impact the student body.  “I think it’ll just allow students to access a lot of the stuff we already had a lot easier and more obviously,” she said.

Go visit the library this week!