Library Hosts Public Input Meeting on Possible Second Site

The Clarksville-Montgomery CountyPublic Library will be hosting a community input meeting at Kenwood High Schoolcafeteria on Tuesday, August 30th from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Thepublic is invited to give their input on a proposed North Branchlibrary. This would be the public library's first branch library ever outsidethe main library and is one of the first phases of a proposed expansion ofservices according to the library's strategic plan.

The Library Board has engaged thearchitectural firm HBM Architects to conduct the meeting. Kevin Kennedy, one ofthe principals in the firm, invites the public to attend this participatorymeeting saying, "This will be a great opportunity for the library to gatherpublic input on both what citizens of Montgomery County would like to see in abranch library as well as which site might work the best, in their opinion.This is a very interactive session and will open many people's eyes to what ispossible in the changing world of libraries today."

The meeting will be composed of two parts. The first part will be what Kennedy calls a "Mind-Breaking" session. Images from various libraries relating to specific spaces within a new facility will be shown and participants will be able to record their reactions to the images, both good or bad. A wide range of images will be used to challenge participants to expand the possibilities of what a library can be. "Most people don't know what is possible in a library if they haven't seen some of these concepts, so we want to both help them break open their minds to new concepts and also gauge their reactions to make sure we create what the community is comfortable with. Participants will write their comments down and these will all be collected and tabulated. It is pretty exciting to see what can come out of this process that we have completed so many times so successfully. Each community is different and so we never see the same result twice."

The second part of the meeting will be looking at very simple site designs that will fit a basic building, parking and site layout onto each site in question and discuss the pros and cons of each site. The Mind-Breaking session will feed into the site evaluation process so that participants will already have a feel for what features they might want in a particular site.

Martha Hendricks, Public Library Director, commented, "We have looked at a number of sites for the branch and are bringing forth the top three sites in an area that is generally north of Purple Heart highway. I continue to believe that this library expansion needs the public's voice in several way to be successful - in giving input on what the library ultimately looks like, where it is located and providing the push to County Commissioners that this library is truly something the community wants. Now is the beginning of that opportunity for the public to speak and to shape the discussion and the ultimate outcome."

This event is free and open to the public.