Last year, the Media Center had a very different look. But kicking off the new year, Michelle Shnell and Karen Campbell decided after at least five years, it was time to kick off their plan for the Media Center. 

“Mrs. Shnell has a master plan,” Campbell said. “Just a vision for the Media Center and this was a big one.”

After moving the fiction books out from under the sky light, Shnell decided to move them to a different part of the Media Center with more space to allow the collection of books to expand. 

“One (reason) we needed more room for the fiction books to spread out is so the collection can grow,” Shnell said. “We are always concerned about what is the average copyright date so we want to make sure we have really recent stuff, that we have stuff that’s hard-backed, which takes up more room than paperback, and that we have room to grow.

Another one of the big reasons that she wanted to change the way the Media Center was set up was to display it as a place to relax and hang out. The main leisure area has already expanded to fill the area that the fiction books took up, but there are grander plans in place. 

“I’m looking at putting in more comfy seating,” Shnell said. “I’m looking at taking down some of the table tops that go around the pillars and putting the couches that go around the pillars.”

Shnell’s current priority is rearranging the biography section. Many of the biographies are outdated and haven’t been checked out in years. 

“I’m gonna go through them, and weed them, get rid of them and get new ones,” Shnell said. “I’ve taken a ton of suggestions from kids about whos biography you would like to have on there.”