AURORA | The Martin Luther King Jr. Library expanded its available space, and the community can now expand its imagination and creativity.
On Monday, library staff and city officials unveiled a modern, welcoming, youth-focused hub where technology hums, creativity buzzes, and the sewing machines are already threaded and ready.
“It’s a great third place to have a chance to do those kinds of activities,” said Ginger White Brunetti, director of Library and Cultural Services.
City officials and Aurora Democratic Congressperson Jason Crow celebrated the $2.5 million expansion, that doubled the library’s space, funded by a federal grant procured by Crow.
While the building gleams with new collaborative rooms, a computer lab, and twice the breathing room, the crown jewel of the remodelling and expansion is unquestionably the Makerspace. It’s a room filled with a 3D printer, a laser cutter, sewing machines, wood-burning tools, software like SolidWorks, and, soon, certified training programs.
“I have a 15-year-old son who is obsessed with 3D printing,” Brunetti said. “It caters to youth and gives them skills they might not get in their regular curriculum.”
Staff said they will also provide a library of 3D design software for people to use. Makerspace librarian Megan Courter said she is already seeing the impact the space can bring to different people.
“We recently had a homeschooling family come in so their child could use our printer for a 3D project,” Courter said. “We had a homeless patron who got some brand-new pants and hemmed them to the right length on our sewing machines. We really want to make this a place for the community to have access to these machines.”
Sewing machines and 3D printers are not cheap, she said, so this way everyone can have access to them. For 3D printing, Courter said, the library charges about five cents per gram of filament.
“One of the big one-kilogram spools is about $20, and we charge at cost after the first dollar in a month,” Courter said. “But if you just want to print something small and you don’t have the dollar. Just come print. We’ve got you.”
Beyond the gadgets, staff are planning programs such as acrylic painting, wood burning, candle and soap making, and even a potential Hot Wheels engineering program, with 3D-printed supports to keep famously wobbly plastic tracks from bouncing off course, Courter said.
The library staff didn’t want to fill the room right away because they wanted community input for what to add next, Courter said.
“We want to be able to expand in a patron-led direction,” Courter said. “Who knows, five or ten years from now, maybe we’ll have an embroidery machine or sublimation printer. We’re really waiting to see what our patrons are interested in.”
The Makerspace is open to anyone 8 years old and older, as long as they have an adult, and staff is willing to help problem-solve if an adult isn’t available, Courter said. There will always be a staff member in the room to assist and enforce safety standards. Eventually, they hope to offer certifications so experienced users can work more independently.
Upstairs may have the high-tech toys, but downstairs is where the smallest patrons rule.
New carpet, fresh paint, updated fixtures, and reconfigured shelving helped transform what staff described as a basic children’s area into a full-fledged play space for children.
“We’ve increased our space downstairs and transformed it from mostly a library with a few toys to a full-fledged play space,” Myra Alvey, library branch supervisor, said. “We know that kids learn better through play than any other factor at the ages of zero to three, which are crucial, and so we’re extraordinarily excited to bring that downstairs every hour we’re open.”
The children’s area now includes low shelves kids can browse on their own, toddler-friendly computers and tablets and added play space, meant to be irresistible for young families, especially during the long summer months, Alvey said.
“In that hard time of summer for parents, especially working parents, they can bring their kids here,” Tyler Walton, staff training and volunteer coordinator, said. “This is all open, of course, free to play around. Everything’s down at their level, so kids can actually see it and choose what they want.”
One of the design choices is as simple as it is intentional; no wall or gate separates the hallway from the play zone.
“There’s no physical boundary from the hallway to the play space by design,” Alvey said.
That early response is significant in a neighborhood that has seen more than its share of skepticism, Alvey said.
“There’s a lot of pessimism in the neighborhood, and I understand it,” Alvey said. “But it is possible to see transformation, and it is starting down here and upstairs. We’re expecting, within a year to three years, to see a completely different library.”
Alvey said the library wants to encourage kids to be kids and parents to relax while they are there. The librarians are happy to keep the younger kids engaged with playtime or reading while parents get some work done, and they even encourage children not to clean up after themselves, leaving the room open for playtime at all times.
“If we want kids to play, we have to be begging for a mess,” Alvey said. “We want families to know there is one place they can go where someone is going to clean up after them, and be just as enthusiastic to see them and their little ones every time they come in. That’s the price of play.”
Staff are leaning into informal, pop-up programming to keep kids engaged.
“You’ll notice there are coloring sheets, and the tables often have butcher paper on them now, so they can be used as writing stations,” Alvey said. “If we see three to five kids starting to get bored of the toys, we’ll pop over with a couple of storybooks and read with them, or bring over some different toys and play. It gives them a little more novelty and guided interaction.”
The downstairs revamp was mainly driven by frontline staff, not architects, officials said.
“The remodel, fundamentally, was focused upstairs, but that was really beneficial, because it allowed the staff to do the blueprint for downstairs,” Alvey said. “We were able to expand play in a way that I don’t know would have been the first choice from an architectural standpoint, but from a community standpoint, it’s amazing.”
Already, staff say they see children making friends, and parents following suit.
“We’re regularly seeing families come together, kids meeting each other, parents exchanging information,” Alvey said.
Before the renovation, Alvey said the building simply didn’t match the demand.
“Before this, it looked very similar, but there were only a few computer stations,” Alvey said. “There just wasn’t enough space to reflect the community’s need.”
Now, there’s an entire computer lab downstairs and more public computers upstairs, plus free WiFi throughout the building.
“Almost every day after school, we will have that computer lab full,” Alvey said. “It’s funny, when we only had two (computer labs), they’d often be empty because people assumed they’d be full. Now that they know we have them, they’re full every day. It’s so great to see the space actually used.