Weather conditions may slow the traff c for a few days, but local libraries are great winter destinations.
Actually, they are great “anytime” destinations, but winter tends to force people indoors anyway and is a time when many folks reacquaint themselves with what the libraries have to oft er.
Each of the region’s major cities has a strong library but Fayetteville’s is getting a little extra attention these days.
Just eight years into its existence, the Blair Library is looking at a major expansion.
Planning has been going on for quite a while now and will continue, but the facility should in the future be better able to serve its roles as a community center and meeting place as well as a book depository.
A recent article on the library described its use by people from all walks of life and of difterent ages as well as its outreach beyond the walls of the library itself.
Local librarians emphasized the changing nature of the library.
“We’ve become a community centerand a place to connect the community with information, from yoga lessons to free music on Sunday afternoons in June to writing groups and book clubs,” one told the reporter.
David Johnson, library director, may have said it best.
“The community has a love aftair with this library,” he said.
He described the place as one where people routinely wait for the doors to open to rush inside to claim a meeting room, a computer or study space.
Notably, about 88 percent of Fayetteville households have a library card, Johnson said. The number compares to a national average of 54 percent.
People also want the library for special occasions, like the memorial for a popular local author later this month that is expected to draw 500 or more. Thelibrary has been the place for the screening of locally produced documentaries and a host of other programs, large and small.
Preliminary plans for the library expansion include a 750-seat auditorium to expand capacity for programming such as well-attended author talks, documentary screenings and meetings of interest groups.
Gatherings such as those to protest the hog farm near the Buft alo River come to mind as a routine example when the existing 150-seat community room just couldn’t handle the demand. Many times the crowds spill out into a corridor outside the meeting room, so larger gathering space is critical to the library’s future.
Also, despite all those predictions that hard-cover books will give way to electronic readers, demand continues for handheld books and this library reportedly holds 288,000 of the 300,000 it was originally built to hold.
Expansion plans will address those needs, too, as the library fi nalizes an 80,000-square-foot addition on the site that has been home to the old City Hospital.
Purchase of the property will be completed early next year and thepublic should soon see architectural drawings for the addition with a larger computer lab, more technology and study rooms as well as more book shelves and that much-needed auditorium.
Obviously, the planning part must eventually give way to the paying part. Not only is there a cost to build the addition and equip it, there must be money for its operation.
Taxpayers and donors fund the library and will have to provide more to realize the expansion plans.
This library realized a high level of community support back in 1999 when 75 percent of voters backed a temporary 1 cent sales tax to provide funding for the new library at School Avenue and Mountain Street. The new facility opened in 2004 and has since continued to see demand for its spaces and services grow to the point more space is a necessity.
Public exploration of expansion will get serious next year, as library supporters resolve how to find the money. A millage increase and a bond issue could be on the horizon.
BRENDA BLAGG IS A FREELANCE COLUMNIST AND LONGTIME JOURNALIST IN NORTHWEST ARKANSAS.
Opinion, Pages 10 on 12/08/2013