The Manhattan Public Library’s new Teen Zone, which opened on Friday, is a great improvement on the old one.

The teen section is no longer situated by the large print books, giving teens a space away from other age groups. The only age group allowed inside the space is 12-18. The area includes a section with young adult books and a section with technology, video games, card games and board games. The games and technology section is inside a glass room so that talking is allowed and the noise doesn’t carry to the rest of the library. This allows teens to do group projects and hang out with friends without constantly being told to be quiet.

There are two consoles, a Nintendo Switch and a Xbox one. All of the games on the consoles are multi-player; however, Fortnite and other single player games are allowed on the computers. There are five computers available in the Teen Zone.

The zone is open all library hours but the consoles are only available from 3-7p.m. on weekdays, 12-6p.m. on Saturdays, and from 1-6p.m. on Sundays. Other games include Cards, Uno, Ticket to Ride, Codenames and Chess.

The space also provides a good study area. All of the computers have microsoft office, they also have internet for research and Google Docs. It is close to the Reference section for other research. Digital art software is also available. The library is a short walk from the East campus and also not far from West, this is ideal for people looking for a place to study outside of school.

The book selection is largely the same as the one before but some comics including DC, Marvel and Manga have been added.

The area itself has more seating than the previous one which had next to none. Before the new space was built no games or video games were available and the same rules about quiet were in effect. The Teen Zone is a much more welcoming environment than the previous one and is worth going to because it provides things that the school library doesn’t.