2-18-2025 12:05am

Saline District Library Welcomes Patrons to Tour The Newly Remodeled Facility

It’s official. The Saline District Library welcomed patrons to tour the newly remodeled facility on Sunday at a community open house. The three-phase renovation, which began with a groundbreaking ceremony in June of 2024, is nearly complete.

As visitors entered the building, they were welcomed with light and colorful spaces. In each area, photos of the space before the renovation were on display, allowing patrons to see the improvements that had been made.

“It has been absolutely fantastic,” said Karrie Waarala, Library Director. “It has been wall to wall people until just a few moments ago. We were so excited that so many people came out. We had a lot of music students from Saline Area Schools performing for the first two hours. The Saline Middle School Fiddle Club started us off, and the jazz combo just wrapped up. It was so nice to have so many people come out for that.”

Visitors were encouraged to tour the space and visit the new programming rooms, where they could make a bookmark or grab a pastry and a hot drink in a commemorative SDL travel cup. Families could take their hot cocoas outside as they traveled the Story Book Trail.

“Everyone has talked about how open and beautiful it is,” Waarala said. “ People are amazed that we didn’t actually expand the library because everything feels so much bigger now. It’s a much better use of space. We had a lot of sharp angles, and that takes up some space. It was time to reevaluate what we needed a library building to be. The building turned thirty. At fifteen, we doubled its size. In another fifteen years, it was time to look at how much libraries services and collections have changed.”

One of the objectives of the remodel was to tie the beautiful outdoor setting with the interior. The Story Book Trail and plaza now offers options for the outdoor space, while the new interior color palette and design brings the outdoors in.

“If you stand here in the commons and look at how these soffits draw the eye right to the woods outside, everything is just more connected,” Waarala said.

The final project to be completed will be the Friends room, which will be opening this spring.

“The Friends bookshop will be where the programming room was. There is a temporary wall there. That’s the last little bit of the construction zone. Once that construction is done, the Friends will be able to get back in there, set up their space, start taking donations, and be able to open again. We’re so excited to give them a better space.”

The new room will be a more welcoming space, with windows, new lighting, and cozy places to sit while browsing through bookshelves.

Waarala is excited to offer a full variety of programs in the library once again.

“We were so grateful to Saline Main Street for letting us use the 109 for this last segment. We did our best setting up the three phases of construction so that we could stay open as much as possible, but for that section of construction we had no way to program here. We’re very excited to be able to get back to that. We now have the new program room and the youth program room is also a great space. It’s really good to have these things back.”