Librarian said public/school library is running out of space

"Unfortunately, I feel we are coming to a crisis situation," said Town Librarian Jean Garland on Tuesday night, as she met with the school board to discuss the lack of space in the town/school library. She was joined at the meeting by library trustees Jane Duggan and Leo Sullivan. Garland, who has been the town librarian since 1953, met with selectmen last month as well to explain the space plight. The town has had a library since 1896, when it started out in the Union Congregational Church basement in Bartlett Village. In 1953, when Garland came to preside over the periodicals, the library had 1,100 books and one encyclopedia dated 1898. By the late 1950s, the library had exhausted this space."In 1959," Garland said, "Bartlett High School closed, sending its students to Kennett High School. One of the trustees, Flora Jones, suggested we look into moving into the school basement where the school industrial arts shop had been located. The school board approved, and a newly formed Friends of the Library, library trustees and the librarian cleaned the many years of coal dust from the exposed pipes, and painted the walls. New shelving was installed, and over the next few years this space was adequate. We once again ran out of space, and over the next couple of years we expanded our space in the basement twice.Garland said the library has undergone many changes since 1979 due to construction and flooding, among other issues. "In 1980," she said, "we were in a completely renovated library; unfortunately, it was in the basement, was not easily accessible to the public and prone to flooding. Garland also recounted the school's major building project of 1989, which meant tearing down the 1930s structure and constructing a new building to meet the needs of Josiah Bartlett Elementary School into the '90s and beyond."We now had a totally new combined library finally at ground level with handicap accessibility, a public library entrance, and for a time, adequate shelving," said Garland. "The library served both the community and the school well during most of the '90s. We were, however, once again running out of shelving space, storage space and meeting space. We often had inadequate and sometimes no parking spaces for the public library patrons."Garland said space has become a huge issue over the past year. The library currently has 18,850 materials with the town collection being 12,984 books and 5,903 in the school collection. This does not include encyclopedias and some reference materials."As it appears there is no room for further expansion in the school it is now time for the public library to start planning how to meet our community's needs," said Garland. "Knowing this will take considerable time and funding the trustees feel it is time to begin the process now."Garland also informed selectmen that library officials are asking the town to set up a capital reserve fund for an expansion. Board member Frank Moffatt expressed his concerns, saying "[Fellow board member] Henry Villaume and I have talked about this and we need to get our thoughts down... It may be time to revive the facilities committee and discuss a revised plan for the library and the kindergarten wing. I'd personally hate to see the library move out of this building." The cost to replace windows in the kindergarten wing is estimated at between $600,000 and $700,000.The school district does own a church building, but Villaume said there are a number of liability issues surrounding it, such as lead content. "It's something we as a board need to address," he continued. "... Right now we store a lot of athletic equipment there that the students use. I'm not sure we could use it as a library without investing a great deal of money. Books are heavy and we'd probably have to lift the church and put a slab under it to hold the weight, and then we'd have to double the building in size to meet the standards of Rural Development."Fellow board member Dave Lennon expressed his appreciation for all the work Garland has done for the town, and asked school Principal Joe Voci to look into creating a reserved parking space for her at the library. "After 51 years," he said, "I think that's the very least she deserves."