The positive aspects of change discussed

 She shared slides and stories of her former home near San Diego in the presentation. Prior to living in a 500 square-foot Ocean Beach cottage, the Atlanta native lived in a three-bedroom home in Mississippi.

“Every time I move, my brain gets rewired,” she said, noting that she has gained 10 pounds since moving to western Nebraska which she described as “strikingly beautiful” when she shared a slide of a winter snow storm.

Displaying a photo of four friends on the beach, she reflected that each one of them had left the San Diego area since the photo was taken. Hines feels that port cities attract personalities who like the constant change caused by arrivals and departures.

She pointed out the illusion that those in attendance were sitting still on chairs in the King Library listening to her lecture.

“You are really spinning on Earth and orbiting through space at incredible speeds,” she said.

Hines asked those in attendance to share changes they have planned and expressed her goal to build a “tiny home” of 128 square feet on a trailer over the coming summer.

The discussion of change eventually led to the renovations in the King Library where Hines and other staff members recently moved their offices to the basement level.

She explained that the library staff members are studying how students are utilizing the space on the “chatty” main level of the Library Learning Commons so they can create useful, inviting and functional spaces for a variety of uses.

Hines and her staff also plan to host more academic events. The third level will remain more of a traditional library space.

Plans are to place the fiction collection around the coffee shop when it opens. Hines hopes to encourage reading by putting books where the people are. She noted that she was pleased with the doubling of library entries and exits from 15,000 last year to 30,000 this year.

Hines, who holds three degrees in English literature, said she and her staff will be “weeding” out irrelevant books or those in poor condition over the next two years so they can revitalize the library’s holdings.

“I think about the changes I initiate because they could affect people who have and will live here a lot longer than I will,” she said.

Hines quoted performance artist Laurie Anderson to make a point about having more computers in the Library Learning Commons: “Technology is the fire around which we tell our stories.”