The Rappahannock County Public Library is nearing completion of the final design concept of its expansion and plans to present it to the Board of Supervisors next month.
With a growing user base comes a need for more space, and according to library officials, library visitors rose by over 3,000 from fiscal year 2022 to 2023.
Victoria Fortuna, president of the library’s Board of Trustees, told the Board of Supervisors at its Monday meeting that the library board finalized a basic design concept at its March meeting, and renovation plans are moving forward.
Over the past year, the library board has been working with architects with Enteros Design, a design firm based in Richmond, to create a renovation concept that will cover all of the needs of the community. Fortuna said with the renovation, the library with the expansion, the building will be just under 10,000 square feet, and include almost everything suggested to them by citizens in a space needs study, such as new community and teen spaces.
The library board hopes to have its chief architect give a brief presentation on the facilities when it presents the final design concept to the supervisors next month.
John Beardsley, chair of the expansion and renovation committee, said the expansion is planned along both sides of the existing library building. He said they hope to take advantage of the views from the hill the building sits on and natural light in the new space.
“It really meets the main objectives that the library staff spelled out and the community told us we needed,” Beardsley said. “I think we’re on track with a really interesting proposal.”
Fortuna said she anticipates the library building will have to close while under construction, but alternative spaces like the Book Barn next door will be used to hopefully mitigate the disruption.
‘Exciting year’ for library
Amanda Weakley, library director, said it has been an “exciting year” for the library, and listed a number of new free resources, beyond their collection of books, that the library has available. Weakley urged the board to encourage their constituents to use and support the library.
“Libraries everywhere are evolving, and we are part of the evolution,” Weakley said. “Clearly we are growing, we are adapting, we are evolving, yet we are keeping the Rappahannock feel, charm and personalized resources and services that our patrons love.”
She also said there has been an increase in physical and electronic circulation, and the library has added nearly 300 non-literary items to its collection such as adventure backpacks, a seed library and Virginia state park passes.
Weakley said the library acts as a community center in Rappahannock, and many groups use the rooms for events and meetings. In FY23, the library saw a record number of library programs, according to Weakley, hosting a total of 64. Non-library programming such as community events also saw a significant jump, from 186 programs in 2022 to 411 in 2023.
“We have a lot of groups using our meeting room, as it’s one of the only, if not the only, in the area, in the county,” Weakley said.
Weakley told the supervisors that the Senior Art at the Library program was recently named Outstanding Adult Program serving a population under 25,000 by the Virginia Public Library Directors Association.
Ireland Hayes is a reporter for Foothills Forum, a nonprofit organization that supports local news in Rappahannock County.
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