Oregon Public Broadcasting

The social networking website Facebook says it will double the size of a new data center currently under construction in Prineville. The company says the expansion was planned since the beginning of the project.

Facebook only recently decided to move forward with the second phase.

Ken Patchett is the manager of the Prineville data center. He says the additional space will be used to house additional servers.

He likens the layout to the Library of Congress.

Ken Patchett: "The server data center floor looks exactly the same way. We have racks that are the bookshelves and we have the servers that would represent the book. And it looks just like a very large library only although a little more ozone smell and the air is quite a bit fresher."

Patchett says the facility is expected to open in December of 2012. That will add nearly a year's worth of construction work to the project.

Once it's running, the data center will have 35 full time employees.