Library more user-friendly

Charlie Barker, 4, loves playing computer games at the Moniteau County Library, such as Dora the Explorer on Nick Jr. Games as seen here. But his mom, Bethany Pace, loves it just as much since the library rearranged the placement of the computers in the children's section so mom can be near her son while her son has better access to the computers.
Charlie Barker, 4, loves playing computer games at the Moniteau County Library, such as Dora the Explorer on Nick Jr. Games as seen here. But his mom, Bethany Pace, loves it just as much since the library rearranged the placement of the computers in the children's section so mom can be near her son while her son has better access to the computers.

Charlie Barker, 4, loves playing computer games at the Moniteau County Library @ Wood Place.

One of his favorites is “Dora the Explorer.”

But he wasn’t able to enjoy them the way the computers were previously arranged in the children’s section.

And his mom, Bethany Pace, also wasn’t able to be close enough to watch over Charlie because of the old configeration.

“So, I just didn’t bring my kids,” Pace said. She felt her kids were too isolated in the old arrangement. “It’s a lot better now.”

She loves the new arrangement.

The computers in the children’s section used to be up against the wall, Connie Walker, director of the Moniteau County Library, said, and were somewhat awkward to use.

“This used to be an L-shape and the shelves were turned a different way,” Walker explained.

The library offers 65 educational stories and activities in the children’s section. Around 2,500 have used the children’s section last year and Walker hopes the new arrangement will increase that number this year.

Walker also has made some other significant changes to the look of the library’s interior, adding to the adult fiction section, and opening up the interior space and layout so patrons find it more pleasant and easier to use.

“We added a whole new run in the adult fiction section,” Walker said. “We needed it.”

Walker was out of shelving but didn’t have it in the library budget.

But thanks to support from organizations such as the Elia Wood Paegelow Foundation and the E.M. Burger Foundation, the new additions and changes could be made this year.

And Monica Freeman, a patron at the library, appreciates it. She studies for her nursing degree at the Moniteau County Library when her daughter Mila, 4, is in school.

“I think it looks better,” Freeman said. “This library offers a lot. I’d like to see it expand.”