SHEPHERDSTOWN – For anyone who calls Shepherdstown, W.Va. home, even if not an official resident here, and has ever enjoyed the library on German Street, you are in for a treat, because Shepherdstown is getting a new library.
Since the news has spread through town of the new library, community members and officials are in support. During the town council meeting Tuesday, Feb.10, 2015, the library directors asked the council for continued support, and the decision was unanimous in letting the process continue.
Hali Taylor, director of Shepherdstown public library, provided town council with a presentation beginning with the question: “Are public libraries obsolete?” She explained that libraries function as a “third space.” A third space isn’t work and it isn’t home, but it’s a place where strangers can come and go, spending time together in a public setting.
“It will be one more sustainable resource for Shepherdstown,” Taylor said during her presentation. The projected cost of the library is set for $3.5 million. While the goal has not been met quite yet, the library directors and donators are over half way there in fundraising.
In 1922, Shepherdstown’s first public library was established in the Old Market House by the women’s club. There is an array of fiction and non-fiction selections in the library’s collection and through interlibrary loans. Shepherdstown public library also offers newspapers, periodicals, audio books, e-books and reference books.
“Libraries are portals to information,” Taylor said.
Taylor said one thing she wants to make sure of is that residents know that the library in the Market House isn’t going away. The old library will have reading rooms on the first floor, and genealogy and local history will be available on the second floor.
The new library is going to be about a mile from the current facility on an extension of Lowe Drive. The address for the new library is not officially set but will be soon. The new library will be ADA accessible and will include a green roof, solar panels, two stories, outdoor green space and will be sustainable.
“When I think of the library now, I kind of just think of it for kids’ books, but I would totally go there for books,” said Shepherdstown resident Kelsey Severson.
“The library being equipped with a green roof and solar panels is definitely exciting and will hopefully help set a new standard for building projects around town,” said Shepherdstown resident Mason Meadows.