Starting next week, Joplin citizens’ phones will be ringing in order to learn about their library usage and preferences when using a library. As progress continues on the new Joplin Public Library, the Board of Trustees, administration, staff and planners for the Library facility are interested in hearing from the public about their past experiences, and their preferences for a public library.
The telephone survey will be conducted by Mark Ellickson of Springfield, Mo. Online surveys are also available by clicking on the link at the end of this article. The online survey will be open until Saturday, February 28, 11:45pm.
“We are asking Joplin residents about their use of the Library, and what services have been helpful to them, and those types of questions,” said Jacque Gage, Director of the JPL. “By learning more about our current users’ preferences, as well as hearing about new services that they may like to see, we will begin to prioritize the areas and determine how they could fit into our physical floor plan.”
The current library will be relocated to a new facility at the northeast corner of 20th and Connecticut Streets. The City of Joplin recently selected SAPP Design Associates (SDA) of Springfield, Mo., for the architectural design and TriState Engineering of Joplin for site civil design services.
Gage notes that a new building will offer much more space than the current facility. This new building will address many other problems the library has faced at their current location, including an overall lack of space and inability to expand either outward or upward; a lack of ADA accessibility and compliance; limited parking; and a structure without flexibility for design for the capacity of today’s electrical or computing needs.
“As we begin to plan the new library, we want to make sure the new library building is built both for today’s needs and tomorrow’s dreams. We would like to plan with flexibility in order to meet future needs and opportunities that do not currently exist. Through these surveys, the information will be helpful in telling us what our citizens would like their library to be, both now and in the future.”
Hard copies of the surveys will also be available at the current Library next week.
In addition, more public meetings will be held in the beginning of March. Dates and times will be announced in the near future.
The Library project is a partnership with the Economic Development Administration, which awarded the City a $20 million grant to assist in the redevelopment of the 20th Street area following the 2011 disaster. The project will include site infrastructure repairs and improvements, as well as the new facility. It is a matching grant from EDA of 80% to 20% City resources, the City will fund $5 million of the project; approximately $4.5 million in TIF funding and $500,000 match in land value of property the City owns at 20th and Connecticut.
Construction is planned for fall 2015.
For more information, please contact Jacque Gage at the Joplin Public Library at 417-623-7953.
To take the survey about the Library....
4 comments:
No backpacks. No loitering. No bathing in the restrooms. You must have library card to enter.
So true main street library is local weirdo and perv hangout.
Perhaps if the City addressed the homeless situation, the PUBLIC library wouldn't be a hangout for those pesky undesirables trying to stay warm. As long as the homeless shelters are controlled by corrupt politicians and business people the problem will remain as it is. Maybe the City could turn the old library into a shelter.
I do hope the new library will be a 21st Century facility and not just the same as the old in a new location.
It will wonderful I hope. there will always be the poor. Not city's responsibility to help poor, its yours, ours.
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