LEBANON - Denice Lee wants Lebanon's new library to feel just like your living room.

Granted, your living room probably isn't close to 20,000 square feet, with a floor-to-ceiling chimney for a gas fireplace on one wall and skylights of red, yellow and blue over the children's picture books.

But when the library opens to the public for its dedication ceremony July 11, Lee, the director, hopes it feels just as warm, friendly and welcoming as your favorite reading corner.

As beloved as it may be, Lebanon's current library is "a fast-food library," Lee said. "You go in, get what you need and come out."

Here, she said, there will be room to sit and savor.

The welcome starts in the parking lot, which boasts 58 spaces instead of the current 12. Patrons can use a drive-up book drop there to stay out of the weather.

The library's main entrance is reached from a sidewalk flush with the parking lot. That was important to patrons tired of climbing stairs or stepping over curbs to reach the wheelchair ramp at the current building, Lee said.

Much of the new library - more than triple the current library's 5,700 square feet - will be one big open space. And the community will be invited to use a 1,500-square-foot meeting room, which comes with a mechanized drop-down screen and an adjacent kitchen.

A secured room will house the genealogy collection. Small rooms alongside the main floor can be used for tutoring, tests or quiet research. Still other office space is dedicated to storage, processing space for books and materials, and a break area for employees.

The whole building, Lee added, has wireless access, just like the old one. "That always surprises people, but they really do make use of it," she said.

Voters approved a $19.97 million grant nearly three years ago to pay for the library and a new justice center across the street. That money covers the building. Private donors helped add some of the special touches, Lee said, including a display case for artwork from the family of Sigurd Landstrom, who ran a jewelry shop in Lebanon for many years.

Maple flooring from the old gym that used to stand on Tangent Street as part of Santiam School will provide the backdrop for the art display at the main entrance. Benches there were salvaged from the same gym's laminated beams, and the fireplace mantle comes from an upper timber.

The family of Anita Harriman, who was devoted to literacy and to teaching young readers, helped with the children's area. Clear acrylic panels sandwiching stems and seeds of grass will help keep down the noise and provide a nod to the city's grass-seed industry. Outside, young readers can listen to stories or play on a giant checkerboard.

The children's area actually consists of three separate sections, dedicated respectively to young adult readers, grade-school readers and beginning readers, Lee said. It also features a family restroom - yet another way to make people feel at home, she said.

"We want them to be happy here," she said.