Published: May 21, 2009 08:14 pm      

GUEST COLUMN: Libraries not just libraries anymore

With extraordinary vision to provide for the future welfare of the county, the Cumberland County Commission, under the leadership of Mayor Brock Hill, voted in 2008 to build a new 21st century library for our community. With additional help from Mayor J.H. Graham III and the Crossville City Council, our new "community living room" is under construction in downtown Crossville.

Libraries are not just libraries anymore. Certainly, the focus on knowledge as contained in books, computers, CDs, magazines and other sources will be retained, but there also will be a large children's library that will feature a playing carousel and a story time mini-theater. In this portion of the library, children will find that learning can be fun, and what a glorious gift to their lives that will be. As a former teacher, I can tell you, without reservation, that the ability to read well and to love learning through reading is the key to a successful academic life for any child. The earlier a child is introduced to reading and the knowledge that can be gained through the written word, the better.

Additionally, the new library will contain a small café where one may buy a beverage and perhaps pastries and snacks to be enjoyed while resting and/or reading in a quiet atmosphere. On a larger scale, a community room with a capacity for 300 persons will be available for meetings and gatherings. There also will be areas for smaller meetings, study and research.

In 2008, there were more than 115,000 visits made to the library and more than 185,000 books, CDs and other materials borrowed by those visitors. If our experience follows that of other cities and counties that have built new libraries in the past few years, the use of our new library will double or more.

The new Art Circle Public Library is named for a local women's club that exclusively provided library services for our community for over 50 years, and continues to support our county's library efforts to this day. This group, along with the Board of Trustees of the ACPL, the Friends of the Library and other interested parties are all looking forward eagerly to the opening of our beautiful new library facility, which is tentatively scheduled for October.

To make that opening a reality, The Art Circle Public Library Foundation needs your help. The foundation, formed in 2008, received a nonprofit charter for the express purpose of raising private funds to support, furnish and equip our new library. The members of the board, of which I am honored to be chairperson, and 20 associates have spent hundreds of hours in fundraising in recent months. We have appealed to our school children's parents, we have made personal visits, we have appeared at club meetings with our messages, we have utilized the media, and now we are asking all citizens to help us complete this wonderful project that will usher in a new era in the educational and cultural life of our community.

In this edition of the Chronicle, you will find a form to use to purchase a children's library patio stone that will be engraved to honor your family, your children or grandchildren, or anyone whom you choose, as a lasting part of our new Art Circle Public Library.

I hope you will join us in our efforts to make lifetime learning a reality for everyone in Crossville and Cumberland County.