Check Out the Library Expansion Plans

Great natural light, handy laptop stations, helpful roaming staffers ― welcome to the future San Clement Branch Library.

Plans are moving forward to expand the into the old senior center with which it shares a building.

The San Clemente City Council Tuesday will vote on some minor design revisions to the plans, and the Kishimoto architecture firm has been hired to draw up the blueprints, said Senior Branch Librarian Karen Wall.

The revisions include adding more outlets to accommodate increasing laptop usage, orienting the stacks to take advantage of more natural light, consolidating the information and checkout desks and reconfiguring the Friends of the Library Bookstore, according to the city staff's report.

Wall said she is particularly pleased with the consolidated service desk model. Patrons can take care of all their needs up front, which frees up staff to rove among the stacks and be available to patrons there. She said it will ideally work like an Apple Store, in which representatives take customers through the entire experience.

"This will offer much better service to the patron. We conform to them," she said.

Wall said the $1.7 million project will be paid for mostly by Orange County, which leases San Clemente's city-owned library building. The Friends and the City of San Clemente will also be involved.

The library is slated to close in fall of 2013 and stay closed for six to nine months during renovations, Wall said.