A central component of the Mendon Public Library’s Strategic Plan, adopted in the spring of 2000, is the expansion of the library to meet the current and future needs of our community. The current usable space of 2,050 square feet is grossly inadequate to house our current collection and provide service to 70,000 patron visits a year. A visit to our library reveals obvious overcrowding.
We need to substantially increase the size of our library in order to meet today’s demands and prepare for the future.
With your support here are some exciting new features planned for your new library:
• Larger book and materials collections – we simply are out of space to add more material to our collections
o Our upstairs room is used to display science fiction books, young adult books, classics, periodicals and all town and county documents.
o This room also serves as a young adult reading area, community meeting room, quiet study room, children’s story time area and program room.
o The Library owns 39,000 materials and has shelving for 22,000 materials as a result many items are shelved on the floor.
• Spacious seating areas - The library has seating for seven comfortable seats. Our plan is to greatly expand this section to provide a place to read and relax in comfort.
• Separate children’s area – Designed especially for children and their caregivers, it will provide a safe fun environment to explore the world of reading.
• Separate teen’s area – This will be a place for teens to gather, do group homework assignments and relax in a safe atmosphere.
• All areas will be handicapped accessible – In order to comply with The American Disabilities Act we need;
o First floor restrooms;
o Handicapped access to the second floor where much of our collection is currently shelved; and
o Wider aisles between shelves.
• Larger programming areas
o In the last two years, the library has seen an increase of 800 participants in attendance at programs.
o On average, the library has about 39 participants per program.
o Program attendance is often limited by space constraints.
• Hot-wired areas for wireless internet connections.
• Expanded technology resources, with more computers and access to the latest technology.
• Quiet study areas for reading and relaxing.
• Spacious community meeting rooms.
• Ample, convenient, safe parking.
• Safe entryway to library – Our building has no sidewalk from the parking lot to the entrance, so that vehicle traffic and pedestrians currently share the same driveway.
A central component of the Mendon Public Library’s Strategic Plan, adopted in the spring of 2000, is the expansion of the library to meet the current and future needs of our community. The current usable space of 2,050 square feet is grossly inadequate to house our current collection and provide service to 70,000 patron visits a year. A visit to our library reveals obvious overcrowding.