MARIETTA - Many east Cobb residents may remember the space next to the Kroger at Johnson Ferry Road and Lower Roswell Road as an old gym with black walls and no windows. Or as a large Chinese buffet before that. But starting Monday, the space at 4880 Lower Roswell Road will officially open as Cobb County's newest and most advanced library, the East Cobb Library.

"I think people will be shocked and very, very happy when they walk in here," Cobb County Commissioner Bob Ott said. "It's a leading-edge library with the most built-in technology out of any of our libraries, and it's wired for the future with Wi-Fi, touch-screen projectors and ample computers."

The East Cobb Library replaces the Merchant's Walk Library, which the county sold for $1.6 million. Ott said the county looked at the cost of acquiring land and building a brand new library, but chose to lease the new space and renovate it to save money. A little more than $900,000 is left after the space was gutted, renovated and furnished, and Ott said the county has earmarked that money for a matching grant from the government to expand or replace East Marietta Library.

"We started thinking about what the role of a library will be in 10 or 15 years, and with the dominance of Internet and growing technology, we're not sure what that role will be so we felt doing this was the smartest thing for us to do," Ott said.

The former library officially closed on January 22, so area residents had to find another library to use for 10 days. The branch manager for Merchant's Walk and now East Cobb Library, Ansie Krige, said all books and staff from Merchant's Walk have moved to the new library, and that they were all excited about the new space.

"Everyone knew we needed something new, and with the windows and lighting, it's just so much brighter and bigger and updated to modern needs," Krige said.

The new library features a teen section, which no other library in Cobb has, with cafe-style tables, a flat-screen television with DVD's and a Wii gaming system available to use, free of charge, and an entire section of young adult novels. The library also features a community room with seating for over 100 people and touch-screen controls on the walls, which is free for any community non-profit or governmental gathering, such as town hall meetings. There is also a large children's room with a Hi-Definition projector and BOSE stereo system, which Krige said will be used for storytelling sessions and movies. Construction began in late August, and details were still being put into place Friday to prepare for opening it up to the public on Monday.

The 16,800 square foot facility is over twice the size of the 8,000 square foot Merchant's Walk Library, and much of the wood work done for furniture was completed by the county's property management team. All of the walls were gutted and new walls were put into place to create other rooms and offices. Windows were also built on the outer walls to bring more light into the facility.

Krige said that the Merchant's Walk Library had an average of 23,000 visitors a month, so she expects that number to continue, if not rise, with the opening of the new library. The library will be open six days a week, Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed on Sunday.

"Historically, when you open a new library, usage goes up pretty dramatically," Cobb County Library System Director Helen Poyer said. "We're very pleased with how it turned out and hope residents will be just as excited about it as we are. It's truly been a labor of love, and we're glad to finally share it with everyone else."