People enter the Jones Library, Saturday, in Amherst. The library at 43 Amity St. will close at the conclusion of business hours on Wednesday to make way for a $46.1 million renovation and expansion of the library. The project is expected to begin in mid-to-late June. Library officials will next prepare for a move of services to a temporary location 101 University Drive for the next 18 months. Books will still be available for checkout and return at the temporary location. The library invited patrons last Saturday to meet with library representatives in the atrium for a farewell to the current building, including an overview of the project and a scavenger hunt. The library on Saturday lent 2,400 items, an increase of 200% above a typical Saturday. In addition to checking out books, Saturday’s farewell celebration at the Jones Library welcomed over 800 visitors, a 50% increase over typical Saturday attendance.
People enter the Jones Library, Saturday, in Amherst. The library at 43 Amity St. will close at the conclusion of business hours on Wednesday to make way for a $46.1 million renovation and expansion of the library. The project is expected to begin in mid-to-late June. Library officials will next prepare for a move of services to a temporary location 101 University Drive for the next 18 months. Books will still be available for checkout and return at the temporary location. The library invited patrons last Saturday to meet with library representatives in the atrium for a farewell to the current building, including an overview of the project and a scavenger hunt. The library on Saturday lent 2,400 items, an increase of 200% above a typical Saturday. In addition to checking out books, Saturday’s farewell celebration at the Jones Library welcomed over 800 visitors, a 50% increase over typical Saturday attendance. Credit: STAFF PHOTO/DANIEL JACOBI II

I have written in these pages that the demolition and rebuilding of Amherst’s Jones Library is based on a design that is already out-of-date. The Covid pandemic changed how we create, store and retrieve information. The number of in-person visitors to the Jones each year has declined from about 325,000 to 175,000.

Now that the Jones is closed for rebuilding, the opportunities to use its satellite branches in north and south Amherst reinforce my argument.

Each of those branches is open just 5 days a week, and for an average of 4 hours a day. North Amherst is closed Sunday and Thursday. Munson in south Amherst is closed Sunday and Friday. The number of hours each is open is just 20 hours a week.

With such limited in-person access, the Jones will be training Amherst residents to find other ways to access the information they seek. Essentially, how to find that information online. What they learn will mean that for some of them, and for some of the things they seek, they will find that they don’t need to go in person to the new, much larger Jones once it’s reopened. That will be more evidence that the designers of the new Jones are way out of step with the storage and retrieval of information now and in the days ahead. And that the excessive cost of this project will be an unnecessary burden on Amherst residents for years to come.

Ken Rosenthal

Amherst