LEGO LIBRARY — New and old collided in this detailed model of the original 1917 Carnegie Library in Warsaw, created by Nathaniel Weiss out of Legos to celebrate the building’s 100th anniversary in April 2017. When available photos only showed two sides of the building, the staff looked up the original blueprints, from which Weiss was able to accurately render window placements and chimneys. It currently sits in the children’s section. (Photo by David Hazledine)

One hundred years after its construction in 1917, Warsaw Community Public Library is once again getting crowded.

The original structure was called the Carnegie Library, named after the corporation which provided the grant for its construction: $15,000 for a 6,134 square foot building. There was a librarian and one or two assistants. By 1931, the library held 21,912 volumes for 5,830 borrowers. The last expansion was in the mid-1990s, spurred on by overcrowding and the need to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. One can discern the additions from the different colored brick outside; the building grew to 41,000 square feet, its current size, and it now staffs 38, including the shelving clerks whose job it is to reshelve around 40,000 items every month. In 2016, 486,625 items were checked out by 28,447 cardholders and 19,405 people attended 613 library-sponsored programs.

The wide range of programs and clubs, dedicated to Minecraft, knitting, painting, Legos, coding, the list goes on, is, along with technological innovations, perhaps the biggest change at the library since its humble beginnings. Now, not only do people go to the library, the library goes to them, with visits to schools, nursing homes and more, in person and via the internet and Facebook.

Joni Brookins, WCPL’s assistant director, has worked at the library for 34 years; however, growing up in Warsaw, she admitted, she did not spend much time there. “The rules were different back then,” she noted. An advanced reader, Brookins was not allowed to check out anything outside of the young adult or children’s section. “I had outpaced that.”

These days,  Brookins would have had many reasons to visit, and if the library did not have what she wanted, she could have it shipped from another one through SRCS, Indiana’s Statewide Remote Circulation Service, the latest and largest resource sharing tool. “It links together the catalogs of over 150 Indiana libraries into a single interface containing over 30 million items, all held by Indiana libraries,” said WCPL Director Ann Zydek, .

This year, as many as 1,000 people will sign up for the summer reading program, which entails far more than just reading, and the WCPL’s afternoon maker clubs are very popular. “The Legos program is huge with the kids,” said Brookins.

One can imagine the amazement, and possible consternation, on the face of a 1917 library-goer if they were to witness a session of Minecraft or a robot-making kit. The library’s 3D printer, now available to the public, is opening yet another wormhole in the universe of what now falls under the title of “public library.”

The makerspace is where Brookins sees the potential need for space in the years ahead. She anticipates the addition of more equipment to the library’s current facilities, which are currently relatively low-tech. “Eventually we will have a room set aside for a makerspace,” she predicted.

Still, vestiges of yesteryear remain in the Indiana Room, which houses some original furniture, an old fireplace and an advertisement painted for a local tavern in the late 1800s by poet James Whitcomb Riley. The Indiana room also houses old newspaper articles on microfiche dating back 150 years.

And, of course, there are plenty of nice, quiet spots for anyone to just sit and read a book.

“For 100 years books have remained the the most popular circulating collection at the library for sharing both stories and information,” noted Zydek. “For the next 100 years I believe that existing and new collections of stories and information will continue to be accessible in varied ways, shapes, and formats due to Warsaw Community Public Library adapting to meet the ongoing needs, interests, and wants of our community members.”

For more information go to www.warsawlibrary.org.