The John McIntire Library has officially re-opened

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The John McIntire Library in Zanesville re-opened Friday and a month ahead of schedule.

The central location of the Muskingum County Library System celebrated the occasion with a ribbon-cutting at 4:30 p.m. and Sean Fennell, the marketing and community relations director, couldn’t be happier.

“One of the, I guess highlights, of this entire renovation for us, the real heart of it is in our lower level with our children’s area. And we have really created something we believe to be exceptional and really special,” Fennell said. “So we encourage everyone to definitely check out the lower level and the children’s area. We have so many wonderful things for children to be able to engage with and really just, I don’t know, really dig into the library.”

The $9.8 million renovation includes a Makerspace with 3-D printers, an audio recording studio, a sewing machine and so much more. There’s a teen’s area with a gaming space and of course the traditional offerings of books, movies, and video grams available to borrow.

“It really is going to be an incredibly different, fresh space. We have a quiet reading room now for example that we’re sitting in at the moment. Which, is separated by an entire floor from the children’s area so the kids can be kids downstairs and adults can have their quiet reading experience in the quiet reading room or browse the shelves and meet with people in our main seating corridor, or have private meetings on the mezzanine and the meeting rooms,” Fennell said. “So, there’s so many things that the library can do for everyone in our community and we just can’t wait to open our doors.”

Earlier in the day, Governor Mike DeWine stopped by to tour the newly renovated library which will be open until 7 p.m. tonight and return to normal operating hours on Saturday.