In the coming months, the Oswego Public Library District will gain what it currently does not have at its campus in downtown Oswego – study rooms.

As Oswego Library Assistant Director Krista Katzen noted, study rooms are in high demand.

“Before we started this project, I think probably at least three or four times a week, if not more, we had people looking for study rooms,” she said. “We have them at our Montgomery campus, but we don’t have any here.”

Three study rooms will be added on the library’s second floor. Two of the rooms will accommodate four people and a third room will accommodate between six and eight people, Katzen said.

On the first floor, offices and/or a study room will be added.

“It’s still not totally determined if it’s going to be an office and a study room or if it’s going to have to be two offices,” Katzen said.

‘We kind of moved from being a place to get your books and go home to a community place where a lot of people come and they do group work.”

—  Oswego Library assistant director Krista Katzen

The work started on Monday. The project originally was supposed to start in October, but the starting date was pushed back because of supply issues.

The project also involves creating more office space for library staff.

The $424,618 project Is being funded through the library’s special reserve fund. The project also includes work at the Montgomery campus, including adding a staff mothers room.

“If anyone on staff is a nursing mother, they will have to have a space they can go to,” Katzen said. “And we have not had that at either building.”

The oldest part of the downtown Oswego library campus dates back to 1964. There have been several building additions over the years, including in 1981, 1986, 2010 and 2015, Library Director Sarah Skilton said.

The library has four study rooms at its Montgomery campus. With more people working at home since the start of the pandemic, Katzen said she has seen the need for study rooms increase.

“A lot of people are looking for space where they can come and work or have a meeting,” she said. “We see a lot of different groups, such as teenage study groups coming in as well as tutors.”

Libraries are even more of a gathering space now because of the pandemic, Katzen said.

“I think the pandemic really accelerated what was already kind of happening,” she said. ‘We kind of moved from being a place to get your books and go home to a community place where a lot of people come and do group work.”

It is unclear when the project at the downtown Oswego campus will be done. The library continues to see supply problems.

“They will not be installing doors and windows until our suppliers can get them,” Katzen said.

The library has a policy at its Oswego campus where patrons can talk anywhere on the library’s first floor and use their cell phones.

“The goal is when the upstairs is finished, you’ll be able to text upstairs, but phones should be on quiet and you shouldn’t take phone calls up here,” Katzen said. “If you need to do group work where you are going to be talking, that’s for downstairs. The whole upstairs should be quiet.”