Scottdale library likely to be in new building by August
The partitions are up. The drywall has been hung. The new Scottdale library soon will be ready for business. “We’re moving right along,” said Judy Ermine, president of the library’s board of directors. “We expect construction to be finished in June. We hope to be moved into the new building by August.”
Rhonda Allison, children’s librarian, said that the new building will be nearly three times as large as the current building.
“This building is built with an open floor plan,” said Allison. “We also have meeting rooms for community meetings. It will be a much more efficient building.”
Allison also is pleased that before long, all of the libraries in the Westmoreland County Federated Library System, of which Scottdale Library is a part, will be online. “People will be able to order inter-loan books right online,” she said. “People also can renew their books online. They will have access to all of the resources within the system.” She said that current library cards will be honored.
Ermine said that board members are being good stewards of the funds people have raised for the new library.
“We’re using as many of our current resources as possible,” she said. “We’re using our current shelves, rather than buying new ones. We’ll be using all of our current tables and chairs. We’ll have to purchase some additional furnishings, simply because we now have a larger building.”
Ermine pointed out that the new library will feature a historical room, to showcase some of the libraries historical holdings and other memorabilia.
The new Scottdale library will be located on the site of the former YMCA building. The library has occupied its current building since the library was founded in 1910. The primary reason for having a larger building is that the library needs room to expand.
Fund-raising for the new building began in the spring of 2005. Fund-raisers were able to secure several key grants, including a $500,000 Keystone Grant.
Community members raised matching funds through private donations and additional fund-raisers, such as the “Lincolns for the Library” campaign, where school children collected pennies to pay for the new building, and the Memorial Brick campaign, where people can memorialize a loved one by having that person’s name engraved in a brick, which will be put into the main wall of the library.
The ground for the new building was broken last fall. The library still must raise $150,000. For this reason, the memorial brick campaign is still ongoing.
Allison said that the most challenging part of the transition is to maintain the daily business of the current library while moving to the new building. “We hope to make the transition as smooth as possible, and to minimize downtime.” People have packaged much of the library’s collection in such a way that people still can check out books, but when the time comes, movers can grab the boxes and take them to the new building.
The library still will host a children’s reading program this summer, beginning June 11. The reading program will be on Wednesdays, 1 p.m., for children from kindergarten to 4th grade. There also will be movie nights, Thursdays at 3 p.m. Pre-schoolers will have their own story hour on Wednesdays at 11 a.m.
Ermine said she is pleased that the people of Scottdale and of the surrounding communities have shown such support for the new library. “I’m proud that the local communities have contributed so much towards the new library. We are the second oldest library in Westmoreland County. For a small town, we’re quite active.”