Yesssssssssss

Representing the Friends of the Library, I presented our proposal to the City Council last night. I am happy to announce that they were extremely receptive - and impressed with the level of our preparedness and how thorough we were. We had spreadsheets, folks. Spreadsheets!

We had all the bases covered: evidence supporting our argument [that the library is too small], quotes, funding, the options, handicap-accessible requirements, and the quantified effects of our current situations. It was totally awesome, yo.

I am endlessly pleased, because...

• They voted to move forward with the initial application!
• They're calling an architect to come and look at the two options we presented!

Our current library is unbearably small; so much so, that there has been a decline in both circulation and patron visits since they moved to the "new building" in 2007 (formerly the City Office). These trends were magnificently illustrated in our illustrious presentation of The Spreadsheet. Quantified data: who can argue with that?!

[btw, before 2007, the library was in a slightly larger building with extremely poor air quality. People were getting sick and it was yellowing/putrefying the books. But circulation was higher, as were physical visits to the library.]

Here are the points that we honed in on:

• We need a larger building for comfortable browsing and expanded programming.
• It is not a matter of if, but when and how.
• The time is now: we have funding available specifically for rural libraries.
• We want to keep people in our town, patronizing our library and our businesses.

It was fist-pumps and happy-dances galore after the meeting.

We nailed it!