Why Move The Library?

Benefits to the Community. . .
From a new Washington Free Public Library building on the square

• A new library for Washington will help create a positive, progressive image for Washington as a city which is willing to invest in providing access to information, cultural and intellectual development for all its citizens.
  
  
• The library's numerous visitors (who checked out 86,993 items in 2005-2006) will be drawn to the center of the downtown district, inviting attention to surrounding businesses.
  
  
• More room for more books: Washington Free Public Library's readers continue to check out more books - circulation is up 5.5% over the past five years. But the library's limited space means that every book added to one collection means one subtracted somewhere else. To add more large print and Spanish language materials has meant the adult nonfiction collection had to shrink. The young adult collection has drawn increasing readership and as a result the adult biography section has been reduced. Children's nonfiction has been reduced so more juvenile fiction could be added. And perfectly good children's picture books must be withdrawn or there will be no room for new ones. The current library building has 11,700 square feet. The new building, planned to occupy 30,000 square feet, will provide ample room and space for collection expansion for many years to come.
  
  
• More room for more than books: Library patrons have learned to expect added services from their library: large print materials, audio books on cassette and CD, Spanish language material, movies on VHS and DVD and music CDs. The current library building with 11,700 square feet is not large enough to house all these services, all of which are valuable. Nor does the current building have the necessary structural supports to add book shelves to its second story. The new building, planned to occupy 30,000 square feet, will allow each of these collections to grow without infringing on the others.
  
  
• More room for children's programs: The library's children's programs have evolved and grown over the years, to the point where they no longer fit into the space provided at the current library location. Story Hour started in 1954 with fewer than 30 children. In summer 2006 over 200 children attended. Currently children's programs include five weekly story times, Head Start Outreach, Junior High Writing Club, a young adult book club and a junior high knitting circle.   The new building will include a 240-square-foot room dedicated to children's programming and a 224-square-foot workroom dedicated to children's programming, plus storage dedicated to children's materials. The children's collection area is designed with space for four computers dedicated to children's use.
  
  
• A library environment which encourages the littlest readers: In the library's current space part of the children's nonfiction section is on shelves 6-1/2 feet high, several feet out of most children's reach. But to place the entire collection within easy reach would mean shrinking this collection by another 20 percent. And in the current library only a few picture books can be displayed in bins, with their colorful covers showing. In the new library building not only will there be additional space for the children's book collection, there will be more than four times as many picture book bins, at eye level to encourage youngsters to browse the books easily.
  
  
• More room for young adult library users: Since 2004, young adult users (primarily junior high and high school students) have increased by 43 percent. By eliminating nearly 40 percent of the biography collection, the library was able to create space for one table and five chairs next to the young adult book collection. That gives one chair for every 45 junior- and senior high school students. In the new building, in addition to seven chairs in the juvenile fiction area, there will be a 480-square foot young adult study area adjacent to the young adult book collection with seven more seats plus three dedicated computers. Young adults also may use the second-floor group study room which comfortably accommodates eight around a table, as well as the three private study carrels.
  
  
• More room for adult programs: The library hosts a variety of adult programs: lectures, performances, events sponsored by Friends of the Library and monthly shows of foreign and independent films. The library is asked to provide space for other community activities as well, from Cub Scouts to Mothers Off Meth. At present the library staff must turn away groups asking to use the library's two upstairs rooms; and sometimes the library's own programs can't use the rooms because they have been booked in advance by others. The new library will offer three public meeting rooms separated by retractable walls for greater flexibility of use; plus an eight-seat room for committee meetings and study groups, plus three enclosed carrels for private study space.
  
  
• More room for computer users: Use of the library's computers has almost quadrupled in the last five years, with over 13,000 yearly uses of the library's eight public access computers, which are squeezed in between audio books, music CDs and new adult fiction. In the new library building, 17 computers will be available: four on the second floor and two more in the study area; four more on the first floor plus three in the young adult study room plus four more in the children's collection.
  
  
• More efficient use of staff time: In the present library one room serves as a public meeting room, children's programming room, staff work space, staff break room and a store room for craft material. Tables and chairs must be constantly rearranged to accommodate changing uses; work on library projects is interrupted and children's programming displays and stored craft material often have been disturbed. In the new building a separate children's program room with dedicated storage cabinets and a separate children's workroom will assure materials, displays and preparations for children's programs are kept out of the way of meeting rooms.
  
  
• Access for everyone: A new building will make the entire library available to those in wheelchairs or with walkers. In the current building over 75 percent of the adult fiction collection is housed in aisles as narrow as 26 inches, too narrow to navigate in a wheelchair or with a walker.
  
  
• Enhancement of Washington's Genealogy Library: Even in its present cramped quarters Washington's Genealogy Library gains rave reviews. However, six pickup-loads of books from Washington County Courthouse remain in storage: there is no shelf room for them. Some books are stored behind other books on shelves; seating and table space are at a premium. A ladder to help retrieve heavy books from the highest shelves is part of the room's necessary equipment. In the new library building the genealogy library will move into 2,000 square feet on the lower level, over three times the size of its current room.

    MISSION STATEMENT
The project to relocate
the Washington Free Public Library to the
Washington Square endeavors to take a portion of our Heritage and place it in the Heart of our community in the Hope for a bright future for the library, the downtown district
and the community
as a whole.