Connecticut's Library Heritage
Director: Paula Davino Dedication: September 2001 Architects: Galliher, Baier & Best (now Best Joslin) Cost: $2.7 million Collection: 25,000 Size: 11,000 sq.ft.
by Jennifer Huget
The East Granby Public Library has undergone dramatic transformations in the past year, not just physically but also in the way it thinks about itself.
In September 2001, Congresswoman Nancy Johnson joined members of the library board and staff, town leaders, and town residents in celebrating the opening of East Granby's brand-new, 11,000-square-foot library building. Nestled in the town's municipal complex, the library, with its brick exterior designed to match the town buildings, took its place, literally and symbolically, at the center of East Granby's civic life. Never before, in its more-than-75-year history, had the East Granby Public Library been housed in a building that was designed to be a library.
The institution was founded in 1922 by six townspeople who gathered to form the East Granby Library Association. The association collected 50-cent membership donations from 200 of their fellow citizens. The first collection of books was kept in private homes that were opened to borrowers a couple hours a week. Later, the books were transferred to shelves on the balcony of the Congregational Church. Then came a succession of former schoolhouses-including the one built in 1924 in which the library resided from 1967 until 2001.
The little building had its charms, but as the town-and library usage-grew, those charms paled in comparison to the building's limitations. Not only was there inadequate space for existing collections, let alone for new additions, but multiple and unavoidable staircases made it impossible for the disabled to use the facility.
Fortunately, the Seymour family of East Granby, in 1990, generously bequeathed $500,000 to the library to be used solely toward construction of a new building. Working from that financial base (which grew to $530,000 through investments and dividends), a committee of library staff, board members, and town residents completed a two-and-a-half-year planning project to determine what the new library should be.
Following guidelines provided by the state library building consultant, the committee considered every aspect of the building and prepared a plan for a facility that would serve the community for twenty years without requiring an addition. Designed by the architects Galliher, Baier & Best of Simsbury (now Best Joslin), the building would be three times the size of the old schoolhouse.
In 1997, East Granby residents attending a town information meeting overwhelmingly approved the library's plan, choosing the town center site over several other options, including expansion of the existing library building. Having reviewed architects' renderings, site plans, and a scale model of the new building, townspeople participating in a non-binding vote in December 1998 supported-again overwhelmingly- a proposal that the town contribute up to $950,000 to construct a new facility and $132,000 annually to help operate it. The town would also donate the land on which the library would be built.
At that first town meeting, an East Granby public school student spoke up: "It would be nice not to have to travel far away to do school research and to have the technology- computers and the Internet-that other libraries do," he said. "And it would be nice to have more books. I hope it's done before I go to college."
Though fundraising consultants were skeptical as to the library association's ability to raise the money needed to undertake such an ambitious project, the library board (led by president Alfred Lederman) and campaign committee, working with head librarian Linda Veirs, raised more than $313,000 toward that goal. With the campaign funds, a $500,000 grant from the State of Connecticut, the Seymour bequest, and the town's contribution, the needed money was in place. The dream of a new library could now come true.
While some maintain a sentimental attachment to the old building, the new facility has opened up all kinds of new possibilities. There is plenty of room to expand the existing collection of more than 25,000 volumes and to build circulation, which had totaled about 34,000 volumes per year in the last year in the old building. Parking is plentiful, too. There's a lovely outdoor patio, a coffee bar, and comfortable seating for patrons.
Beyond that, the library meets an important town-wide need by offering multiple, flexible meeting spaces for the community-including local businesses-to use. Programming for adults is expected to expand beyond the occasional lecture and workshop and the regular book discussion groups initiated by Linda Veirs, who retired after 17 years of service once the new building she had worked so tirelessly to achieve had opened.
The new library is also better suited for the kind of energetic, innovative children's programming developed by children's librarian Lisa Salazar, who organizes story hours, craft sessions, an incredibly popular summer reading program, and evening programs for the younger set. In addition to a program room devoted solely to children's programming, the new library features a fabulous, fantastical tree-house sculpture, created specifically for the library by artist Ted Esselstyn.
In addition to the dedicated, all-volunteer board, the library is guided by its new director, Paula Davino, who took her post in December 2001. The library is also served by an active Friends group, which sponsors an annual Chili Cookoff, Apple Pie Social, Scholastic Book Fair, and other activities to benefit the library.
The new East Granby Public Library is proud of its position at its town's physical and psychological center. And it's proud to have attained that position long before that young man went off to college. A Libratects workshop will be held at the East Granby Public Library on April 4. People associated with the project will be there to offer tours and answer questions.
The library is located at 24 Center Street. The phone number is 860-653-3002.
Jennifer Huget is a freelance writer, former East Granby Library Association board member, and founding president of the Friends of the East Granby Library.