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Public Process Yields Alpine Street Location
In 2002, the Dexter District Library began a series of public forums and workshops to get feedback from citizens regarding Library services. The Library held over two dozen focus groups and convened a committee of citizens, Library Board members and staff to refine the Library’s mission and goals. The Library received feedback from over 200 citizens. Throughout this process, citizens ranked the need for a larger building as the Library’s top priority.
Further input from the community regarding the ideal location focused the Library’s attention on sites within the Village. The Library serves the same geographic area as the school district—over 85 square miles encompassing not only the Village of Dexter but substantial portions of the surrounding townships. Additional community input revealed that no matter where individuals lived in the Library’s service area, citizens felt the best location for an expanded Library was the Village Central Business District.
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After a lengthy negotiation process, the Library was able to secure options to purchase two Alpine Street properties from individual homeowners. These properties are on the west side of Alpine Street, overlooking Warrior Creek Park and Mill Creek. The options allow the Library the first right to purchase these properties. Purchase is dependent on the passage of the Library’s bond and millage issues on the November ballot. The Library does face a limited time window to purchase these properties, with the option on the key parcel expiring in June 2006.
The greatest constraint facing the Library is room to shelve books and other Library materials. The Library is nearing the point where it will need to throw away one old book for each new book purchased.
In order to accommodate growing collections in the current building, the Library has added as much shelving as will fit in the current space. Housing this many materials has impacted each citizen’s ability to use the Library.
To maximize space, the Library has installed tall shelving throughout the Library. Many books in the children’s collection are stored 7 feet off the ground, making it difficult for children to find and reach items. Similar conditions exist in the picture book room, where preschoolers must reach 5 feet off the ground to retrieve some books.
Aisle widths are currently at the minimum Americans with Disabilities Act [link opens in new window] standard of three feet, which makes it difficult for two people to pass each other in an aisle, hard to see books on the bottom shelves, and difficult to reach items on the top shelves.
Study space has been impacted by the addition of shelves. Currently, it is difficult to pull chairs out from the tables and sit down at study tables due to cramped quarters.
Many patrons request a quieter Library. This is difficult in the current facility, due to the proximity of activity areas. Computer work stations, the children’s picture book room, the new book and magazine area, study tables and the audio visual collections are all stored within 20 feet of the circulation desk. Noise is a by product of this concentrated activity.
The extremely popular Family programs draw capacity crowds. Preparing for these programs requires significant portions of the Library be moved and the capacity crowds render parts of the collection completely inaccessible to other patrons.
Parking is at a premium on the current site and expansion of parking would be minimal and extremely expensive.
The Library’s ballot proposals represent responses to both citizen input and existing conditions.
Building Size
During the last ten years, the number of community members using the Library has grown dramatically. The Dexter District Library is now among the top 10% of busiest libraries in the State of Michigan, when use is measured on a per capita basis. The Library’s collections have also grown considerably over this same period. The Library’s collections of books, magazines, DVD’s, music on CD and audio books has doubled, reaching the current total of 56,404 items.
During the same period, use of the Library has increased dramatically. The Library currently serves 6,000 to 7,000 patrons each month. Circulation of Library materials has increased from 20,000 items per year in 1994 to nearly 250,000 items in 2005.
The rapid growth in the number of items the Library owns, the number of people who visit the Library daily and the volume of material the Library circulates has placed a severe strain on the current building.
The Library Board has worked with the public, several space planning consultants and architects to determine a suitable sized expansion. The Alpine Street plan calls for a building of 25,000 square feet. This falls at the conservative end of consultant recommendations. The building will be two stories, will alleviate current building constraints and provide room to grow for a 15-20 year period. The site will also provide improved parking and accommodate a future expansion, should that be necessary.
The building size balances initial cost with long-term viability in order to maximize public tax dollars and provide the community with the services requested through the public input process.
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