Delaware County District Library’s new branch on pace for fall open
A new Delaware County District Library branch is on schedule to open this fall at Home and Steitz roads in Liberty Township, according to library director George Needham.
The branch will be the library system’s fifth in the county, keeping pace with the county’s growing population and the way people use libraries, library leaders said.
“When I was growing up, you always whispered in the library, and you mostly just checked out books,” said Holly Quaine, president of the library’s board of trustees. “The function of libraries has grown beyond that.”
Needham agreed, citing expansive programming, access to technology and providing needed space for community gatherings as ways in which libraries have changed and continue to change.
“All of these things will be accentuated in our new building,” Needham said.
The new branch will be a three-floor, 42,000-square-foot library on a 3.7-acre site.
The design allows for more square footage on a smaller footprint, Needham said, providing both opportunities for grouping functions inside the library by floor and, equally importantly, ample parking space outside.
Needham said extensive use of glass windows in the design and the layout of access areas to two outdoor features of the library – a courtyard on the first floor and a small patio area on the second floor – integrate the outdoor with the indoor in ways library patrons have suggested.
A “business center,” with traditional technology, such as computers and copiers, a makerspace with such technology as 3D printers and laser cutters and dedicated rooms for tutoring and meeting are three examples of features of the new library that reflect modern library functionality, Needham said.
The space also was designed with programming in mind for children, youths and adults, he said.
Quaine said although the ways a library serves the public are changing, the reasons for that service have not.
“We remain rooted in the same values that we always have held, that we continue to be places of intellectual freedom with doors that are open to anyone,” she said.
Those open doors need not be physical, either, Needham said, pointing to the growing use of library services available remotely.
“People can use the library without even coming into our buildings,” he said.
The library is holding interviews for the manager position at the new library, Needham said April 5, and subsequent staffing will be done throughout the spring and summer. He said the library also plans to hold a hiring event from 1 to 5 pm June 23 at the Liberty Township Hall, 7761 Liberty Road.
The cost of construction, including the land purchase, will be slightly above $ 14 million. Needham said the cost of materials and labor has increased the cost of some parts of the process, citing a recent furniture order in particular.
All costs associated with the construction are funded by the 2018 renewal of the library levy.
“One of the pledges we made with the passage of the levy in 2018 was that it would allow us to open a new library that would serve Liberty Township, Powell and Concord Township,” Needham said.
Needham emphasized the Powell branch library off South Liberty Street would remain open, but reduced hours and a de-emphasis on programming are likely.
“We’ll move programming to the larger space that’s been built to accommodate it,” he said. countywide library system. ”
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