The Allen County Public Library (ACPL) serves 385,000 people. For the past three years, the library system has been developing a plan to improve the cultural centers of its communities.
They have worked with various groups in our community to ensure these improvements benefit everyone, including surveys, public forums, and private forums with specific groups.
The ACPL Facilities Master Plan (FMP) aims to increase accessibility, update technology, and create a more inviting and inspiring space for patrons within their communities. Thousands of new library cardholders are added each month, and around 1.8 million people visit the branches every day.
These numbers are up from before the Covid lockdown meaning that people are still really enjoying their local library, even if it’s not in the traditional sense (meeting spaces, library programs, and/or digital items).
The plan implements what people wish to see within their libraries based on the various surveys and forums. Most of the plan involves renovating and/or reconfiguring branches, but a replacement branch will also be built for the Aboite Branch and a potential new branch in Huntertown.
Increasing the space of each of our libraries will allow for more meeting spaces and more display space, allowing for the millions of books released per month, to at least have a few to be at the local library.
“I like to read up on a lot of mythology, but there tends to be more books at the mall’s Barnes and Noble that I need rather than the library,” said CHS junior & patron at ACPL Eli Shipley.
It has become more common for the library to be a “third place” in the US, now more than ever. A “third place” is essentially the place that one might go to outside of school & work. A few examples of utilizing the library as the third place could be for community meetings, tutoring, book clubs, friend get-togethers, etc.
The Library hosts a lot of things, public access broadcasting, maker spaces, storytimes, STEM challenges, book clubs, etc. All with the help of the librarians and the spaces at the library.
With Phase 1 they will break down the entire plan into a smaller chunk to reduce the overall cost on the county during this period. The overall FMP would cost $98 million, however, in phase one it will cost $67 million and will only require $37 million in bonds.
However, this still bumps up costs in property taxes in Allen County, and that’s not a positive for everyone.
Eli Shipley said, “As much as I like the idea of the ‘master plan’, I feel like it’s really pricey. My family struggles enough just trying to stay in the NACS district, who are jacking up property taxes a whole bunch.”
Phase 1 of the FMP was approved in November and is set to begin in 2025. All library branches are expected to remain operational during their respective renovations.
