OSLC Library Week One

Week One was busy putting shelves together. Last week we spent about 4 hours cleaning the shelves off - considering it had been through a fire, stored in a warehouse for two years (think home to pigeons!) and our garage for another year (think lots of sawdust) it wasn't as bad a job as I was expecting!

On Sunday afternoon we spent about 3 hours and 2 trips to a Hibbing hardware store (or as my husband says - "The Dad Mall") assembling the shelves with just a few pieces to spare! The shelves look really great and will double our current shelving capacity.



It took about 8 hours on evenings throughout the week to move all of the books onto these shelves so our current shelves could be dismantled. Today we spent 3 1/2 hours dismantling our current shelves and moving them down to our temporary storage area. Including time to carefully mark the shelve so we could easily put them back together again when the ceiling, carpeting and painting is done!

This week we start moving furniture and our initial demolition of the walls and ceilings.

Redesigning a Library

Have you ever redesigned a library? Me neither, but if you follow our blog I will posting updates as Our Savior's Lutheran Church (OSLC) of Hibbing, MN goes through the process.

OSLC has a library with about 1500 books and about 200 videos in a small room about 10 x 18 on a well traveled hallway between the sanctuary and the Sunday school wing of the church. A year ago a church family made a donation of $10,000 to develop a multi-media center for the church. After much discussion over what a "Multi-media" room was and how our church members would use it. We ended up combining our current library, Sunday School Superintendent's desk, and a lounge into one multi-purpose area with a secondary lounge in another part of the building.

$10,000 sounds like a lot of money but we soon realized it was not when you add together the cost of new ceilings, carpeting, paint, lights, shelves, and desks, chairs, tables, and glass walls. We had hoped to put a glass wall around one end of the library but that ended up being way out of our budget.

We also looked at new wooden library grade shelving but again it was much more expensive than we could afford. Fortunately a local public library was selling their old metal shelving so we were able to purchase used maroon shelving that matched our current black shelving for a much more reasonable price.

Our library will now be 42 x 18 feet and include an area for children to gather for storytimes, a large conference table for small group meetings, Sunday school superintendent and separate librarian work areas, and will be an inviting area for people to gather as they enter the building.

On June 29th we start moving furniture.

Below are the current and planned floor plan for the library.

Current Library

















New Library Design






Please click on comments and tell us about your library remodeling experience or ask questions about ours.

Chris Magnusson
Our Savior's Lutheran Church Library
Hibbing, MN

What's in Your Inbox?

Found anything worth sharing in your email inbox lately? A member recently forwarded this to us, seen in Author Susan May Warren's e-newsletter:

I was that girl who rode her bike to the library every Saturday morning . . .

. . . tucked herself in the aisles, whiled away the day choosing exactly the right book for the following week, and then packed my backpack, WAY too full, and then pedaled furiously home, my bag bumping against my back.

I love the library. It's like a box of chocolates, only the entire box is mine for the tasting! There are SO many wonderful books out there, but sometimes it's difficult to know which ones to read.

Our local librarian is like a therapist - she knows the books I love, and recommends others. Which is why librarians are key, especially for Christian fiction. When a person comes in hunting for the right book to deal with their Christian walk, having someone point them the right direction tells them that they aren't alone. It says that someone is linking arms with them on their journey.

I am so grateful for librarians who partner with me in getting out the word about Christian fiction. I can only write the best book I can -- it's up to librarians to put it into the right hands. Thank you for your ministry!

Susan May Warren is the author of over two dozen Christian Fiction books including 2009 Christy Award Finalist Finding Stefanie. Visit www.susanmaywarren.com to find out about the author's latest projects and sign up for her e-newsletter.