On Monday night, my husband Nick and my sister-in-law, Cecilia and I headed out for a bundled-up run through the fields behind our house. Unexpectedly, what started as a visit and some cardio became a reflection on the importance of seizing opportunities to say goodbye to the old in order to make room for the new when Cecilia started reflecting on her recent tour of the Jones Library.

Cecilia was born and raised in the Pioneer Valley, and has lived and worked in the area for nearly her entire life. Over the past few years, she has followed the Jones Library renovation and expansion project with a bird’s-eye view. She is welcoming of the new space and looking forward to it.

As our footfalls echoed through a darkening landscape of the Wentworth Farm Conservation Area, Cecilia talked about going on the library tour and the impact it had on her. She reminisced about her lifelong relationship with the Jones, and the power of walking into a building where people of all ages were gathered, reading. She remembers the building prior to its 1993 renovation, when she was 10 years old. It’s where she learned how to use a reference desk.

As a student at Amherst Regional High School twenty-something years ago, Cecilia used to stop by her Oma’s apartment in Clark House to enjoy a snack of raisin bread, and then scoot over to the basement of the Jones Library to meet friends or do schoolwork.

On the tour, when they went down into the basement stacks, it kindled a sense of nostalgia in Cecilia.

At tables, still there today, she wrote countless papers for high school classes. It brought her back to a time when students wrote papers without the seduction of the internet or interruptions of phone notifications. She marveled at the focus she remembers achieving down there in the quiet basement stacks.

And it wasn’t just academic. At one of the tables, a close friend brought her into confidence around a powerful and life-altering decision; As Cecilia walked by these tables, she was transported back to those moments.

Going into the tour, Cecilia, like many, felt a cozy sense of familiarity with the Jones Library. There’s a reason people refer to it as ”Amherst’s living room.” Over the years, Cecilia figured she had likely been in every corner of the building. But the guided tour exposed nooks and crannies that she had never been in or laid eyes on. She said only the most dedicated bibliophiles in Amherst would ever have the chance to see many of those spaces.

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And she learned facts about the building she had never known, including that one room with a domed ceiling used to be a theater with a stage.

Cecilia had expected to learn new things from touring the Jones Library. What she hadn’t expected was that it would have such an emotional effect. Remembering afternoons with Oma. Touching the tables. Recounting meaningful encounters with friends. Reflecting on how times are different today.

Going on the tour also made clear the weaknesses and deficiencies of the current building in its ability to meet the needs of Amherst and Pioneer Valley residents today.

And, touring the Jones Library gave Cecilia the chance to say goodbye to this version and built her sense of excitement for the next version and its promise to meet the needs of our community in the 21st century.

Do you want to tour the Jones Library before it closes for renovation?

The Friends of the Jones Libraries has added additional dates to the calendar to tour the building. If you’d be interested, you can show up in the Jones Library Atrium at the following dates and times:

■Saturday, Jan 18, at 10:30 a.m.

■Sunday, Jan 26, at 2:30 p.m.

■Saturday, Feb 8, at 2:30 p.m.

Volunteers will lead tours of the building, including areas not currently open to the public, and you can reconnect with past memories and also learn more about the improvements we can expect to see in a renovated and expanded Jones including dramatically improved energy efficiency and incorporation of clean energy technology, dedicated spaces for children, teens, and adults, and fully accessible spaces throughout.

And perhaps going on a tour and saying goodbye to the old will create the opportunity to welcome in the new.

Johanna Neumann of Amherst has spent the past two decades working to protect our air, water and open spaces, defend consumers in the marketplace and advance a more sustainable economy and democratic society. She can be reached at columnists@gazettenet.com.