The Branch Opens Up

Fairfield Woods Branch Library recently opened up with new interior windows, vibrant colors and more children's programs, and Anna Green, a 10-year-old Fairfield resident on hand for today's low-key celebration, thought it looked great.

"It looks a lot better, and a lot of kids, it's a lot more appealing to them," Anna said from in front of new interior windows and brightly-painted walls toward the back of the Fairfield Woods Road library. "I still like coming here. It's still exciting because every time I come here, it seems more appealing."

"I really like the fact that it draws more attention to the kids, and it's not just a place where you check out books," Anna said.

Brian Kelahan, chairman of the town's Library Board of Trustees, said that was exactly how libraries should be in the 21st century. Kelahan said libraries, when he was a child, were places to pick up books and, if someone talked too loud, they'd hear, "Shoosh!"

Today's libraries, Kelahan said, are places where the community comes together to enjoy other's company and where kids learn, not only from a book, but from hands-on programs as well.

Millie, a North American barn owl from the Connecticut Audubon Center at Fairfield, was outside the Fairfield Woods Branch Library today, and inquisitive youngsters asked Carol Kratzman, the Audubon's education coordinator, all sorts of questions about Millie and were startled when she grew restless and flapped her long wings.

"This is her first trip to Fairfield Woods," Kratzman said. "The library's official mascot is an owl for their nature room, children's room, so I guess, in a way, she is their official mascot."

Children learned that barn owls are an endangered species in Connecticut due to loss of habitat and that they like to eat mice and typically lived in barns and cavities of dead trees. Owls also have sharp talons and a sharp beak, and they nap in short bursts to ensure that a predator doesn't get them, Kratzman said.

Cheryl DelVecchio, the branch library children's librarian, said the library was holding a contest where children could draw an owl and name it, and that would become the official name and drawing of Fairfield Woods' mascot. She said entries are due July 31.

Karin Layton, a part-time employee at the branch library who works in programming, played the guitar and sang, and children and adults blew soap bubbles by the library's newly-planted garden, courtesy of Boy Scouts at Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church next door and the town's Department of Public Works. The garden also includes a plaque and bushes planted in memory of the late Anne Marie Carey, who was the branch librarian before Nancy Coriaty.

The interior renovations mostly involved adding inteior windows to the back of the library, removing a door that segregated two rooms, repainting white walls in vibrant yellow, green and red, and adding carpeting and different furniture. Town DPW workers did a lot of the work, DelVecchio said.

One of the newly-renovated rooms will serve as a nature, science and discovery room, while the other will be a story room that includes puppets for parents and kids, DelVecchio said. "It's all open. Everybody's really liking it," she said.

The newly-renovated space is for preschoolers, while the section of the library farther toward the front desk is for children in grades 1 through 5. Teens have a room in the library basement, called downUnder.

"We redesigned the space to make it more open," Coriaty said. "The back rooms were pretty non-usable...so we decided to open that up and make them like a literacy center."

First Selectman Ken Flatto, who was on hand to cut a ribbon in the newly-renovated preschool section, said, "It just shows what you can do when you take an existing space and make it more creative. The back space was under-utilized, and it's been turned into revitalized space."

"What they've done to make the space so much more accessible and so much more usable for children is really spectacular," Flatto added. "This is a great space. I wish my kids were still young enough to be in story time."

Fairfield Woods Branch Library, which is the busiest branch library in the state, is growing in other ways as well.

Kelahan said 1,823 children were registered in the library's summer reading program, compared to 1,200 last summer, and that the library as of June 30 had 1,000,000 library materials checked out. "That means one million items left the building and came back," he said.

DelVecchio said the library has been the busiest branch library in Connecticut for a lot of years. "We've always been a unique branch. We're a full-service library. A lot of branches aren't, but we are," she said.