Sunday, October 26, 1997
What will voters get if they approve the bond?
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fourth in a five-part series, running
each Sunday through Nov. 2, on the upcoming library election.
By ANTHONY WILSON / Abilene Reporter-News
Unlike new car consumers, Abilenians won't get a chance to
test drive a library before deciding to pony up more taxes in
a bond election.
So after "Do we need a new library?" perhaps the
next most critical question of the Nov. 4 vote to build a larger
library is "What are we buying?"
The design of the 75,000-square-foot facility won't be known
until architects put it on paper, and their hire depends on passage
of the $10.5 million bond issue. But city officials do carry a
clear vision of what the library's look and feel would be.
Returning to the car analogy, City Librarian Cynthia Pirtle
likens the difference between what the city has and could have
in its library to the gulf that separates "a Model T and
a Ford Taurus."
She predicts Abilenians, accustomed to conditions at the current
facility, would react to a modern library with "open-mouthed
pleasure."
"It would be like children on Christmas morning when Santa
has been there and the magic has occurred," Pirtle said.
"It would be that wondrous surprise of how this marvelous
thing has been wrought."
The bond's passage would cost the average homeowner $22 a year
more in city taxes to repay the debt. The annual expense, proponents
note, equals the cost of about three sodas per month, three weeks'
cable TV service or one new hardback book.
The cost to senior citizens would be less -- an average of
$15 per year.
Operating an additional 33,000 square feet of library is projected
to cost an additional $174,000 -- 11 percent above the 1997-98
budget of $1.6 million, which includes a new storefront branch.
Most of the extra funds would pay for more manpower.
Though the expense of a new library at North Sixth and Cypress
has been widely reported, exactly what that money would buy remains
virtually unknown.
'Space you couldn't believe'
The building's design and exterior will depend on the inspirations
of its architects. City officials can say only that the structure
would be two stories tall, would allow for outward expansion and
would complement its downtown surroundings.
The basement would be eliminated, a move to save construction
costs and to avoid the temptation to shuffle services into a dark,
dank space.
Parking would jump from 65 spaces to about 230, not counting
the availability of the Civic Center's lot across North Sixth,
city officials said. City Hall assures voters the library would
more than meet city codes for off-street parking.
Though the new building wouldn't quite double the size of the
38-year-old, 42,000-square-foot Abilene Public Library, Pirtle
said a more efficient, flexible layout will yield up to quadruple
the space in some service areas.
"Flexibility will be the key in what we're trying to achieve,"
the librarian said. "Clever architects can create space you
couldn't believe. Who knows what the building will look like?"
She envisions a colorful, airy, sunny and inviting design.
"I see a bookstore ambience with lots of displays about
what we're about -- brokering information," Pirtle said.
"We'll have a high-tech look with a warmth that says, 'Come
on in and look around.' We'll keep some things people value in
libraries and some things people expect, and we'll be prepared
for things in the future people haven't even thought about yet."
The newest materials would be displayed in special shelving
designed to attract readers. Ample, well-lighted shelves, whose
height will be appropriate for the intended audience, would house
other holdings.
Library studies have proven circulation rises as the number
of volumes per shelf falls, Pirtle said.
"It's a weird thing, but there's something about the human
psyche," she said. "A book that's been there for 20
years is suddenly easier to find."
Reader seating would skyrocket from 78 seats to more than 300,
ranging from comfy couches and cozy chairs for leisurely readers
to sturdy, wooden tables for task-driven students.
Private study rooms could accommodate either the give-and-take
debates of group projects or the solitude necessary for serious
concentration. User-friendly personal computers in the carrels
would offer students an on-ramp to the information superhighway.
First-floor meeting rooms would be accessible even when the
library isn't open for business. A large auditorium, adaptable
for computer terminals for workshops and seminars, could be partitioned
into thirds, giving smaller groups greater intimacy.
Technology would be "abundant" throughout the building,
according to the city librarian, who envisions patrons roaming
the stacks with hand-held computers generating customized reading
lists.
Personal computers would be wired into convenient locations
throughout the building, giving patrons greater access to on-line
data bases, library holdings, the Internet and the World Wide
Web. Each computer would be loaded with the same software, accessed
through the simplest commands.
"We have some available now," Pirtle said. "It's
just a matter of how we showcase it."
Customers browsing the audio and video collections would have
a private place where they could listen to and view their choices.
Improvements in the children's and teen sections would be most
dramatic, Pirtle said.
The children's library would balloon to four times its current
size. The space would boast "discovery zones" where
youngsters could tap at computers loaded with educational software,
furniture designed for their little frames, a spacious story time
area, a workplace for arts and crafts, out-of-sight storage, smaller
stacks and many more displays.
"We have the most creative children's librarian in the
state, and she can't do her job," Pirtle said. "There's
no place to put her creations where they can be seen. I can't
wait to set her loose and display her talent. The sky's the limit."
Teen-agers could gather in a spot all their own, complete with
lounge seating, hip artwork, music and videos of their liking,
and computers.
"That's the vibrant, alive stuff teens like in a place
clearly set aside for them where they can express themselves not
as children and not as adults," Pirtle said.
Adults could lounge in bright, comfortable areas to thumb through
periodicals. Noisy microfilm machines would be tucked into work
stations with ample elbow room and dimmed lights, away from genealogists
quietly researching their roots.
A coffee bar and soda machines would quench thirsty patrons
in a casual setting suitable for conversation.
Every department would be more organized and less hodgepodge,
Pirtle said.
"There won't be quite so much 'early marriage' look,"
she said of the mismatched furnishings.
A 'great equalizer'
The souped-up space would spark more programs and services,
the city's head librarian promised. For instance, the Abilene
Public Library would offer more educational training and programs,
especially involving computers.
The meeting rooms would host discussion groups -- book clubs,
for example -- that lack a spot to gather in the current facility.
More space for staff and their staging duties -- processing of
materials, for instance -- would allow greater outreach to nursing
homes and senior citizen centers. The library would also have
the room and flexibility to host multiple programs simultaneously
-- something it can't currently do.
Pirtle is sure the usage will soar in proportion to the building's
growth.
"I think a new library is going to be a huge draw,"
she said. "I expect usage to at least double. And that's
very conservative. I don't know any library that's ever opened
where that hasn't happened. And once that use begins, it stays
there."
Mayor Gary McCaleb believes a new library would revise locals'
"whole impression" of public libraries.
"We think of a library as walking through crowded, semi-lighted
areas in an outdated facility," he said. "It's not an
experience where you think, 'Boy, I can't wait to go back there
again.' But if it's open and colorful and bright and exciting,
people will want to go back. We're living in a time of pent-up
demand."
Bond proponents believe more space and better technology would
better serve all the community's segments -- children, students,
adults, parents, seniors and business.
McCaleb frequently echoes Pirtle's belief libraries are the
"great equalizer," lending access to information regardless
of one's age, race, class or social standing.
"We should see this as a knowledge and information center,"
McCaleb said. "It levels the playing field and strengthens
our community. We have to prepare all our people with opportunities
for reading, learning and accessing information.
"It's so fundamentally basic and essential to the community,"
he continued. "It's not possible to state how important it
is."
The mayor said he envisions the library serving as a community
melting pot where citizens gather in a sparkling, positive, energized
environment.
"It would be an excuse for people to come together for
the experience of learning," he said. "It makes you
feel a little more like you belong in a community, like it's partly
yours."
Next Sunday: Library election Q&A.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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