New Library Building Project - Ozark Dale County Library

Ozark-Dale County Community Analysis and Recommendations

Prepared by LibraryMax LLC. Consultants

In 2015 & 2016, LibraryMax, LLC. Consultants hosted a variety of focus groups to collect the opinions, needs, and desires of our patrons in the Ozark and Dale County area. The focus groups included residents of Ozark and Dale County who fell into any of these categories - staff, businesspersons, educators, Friends of the Library members, military personnel, seniors, teens, and other interested individuals.

A few highlights from this community analysis includes:

Over 76% of the citizens said they wanted an improved library building from which to receive modern library services. This would either be a new building specifically designed as a library or an existing building retrofitted as a library. To deliver the library services the citizens said they want, it is recommended that the building size be between 1 and 1.5 square feet per capita. With a service area of 37,931 persons, this would require a building of between 37,931 and 56,897 square feet. In many cases adaptive reuse of an existing building can be a more cost-effective approach than building anew, and this has been validated by a recent architectural study of the Ozark Square Shopping Center. (Please note, at the time of this analysis the building at the other end of the Shopping Center was being considered as a possible location to renovate.)
The first focus group-the Smart Start Committee-discussed the library building options available to Ozark-Dale County: 1. Do nothing 2. Renovate the existing library building 3. Renovate an existing building within the community or 4. Build an entirely new library building. The committee agreed that options 1 and 2 were non-starters. Options 3 and 4 were discussed in great detail. The consultants believe that both options have merit, with the final decision factor being what the community can ultimately afford.

To read the complete analysis and recommendations, please click here.

How You Can Support Our Building Project

There are several avenues you can take to help support our NEW Library Building Project! We accept monetary donations as well as volunteer support in advocating and managing upcoming fundraising events. We also sell Friends of the Library totes and Library t-shirts to raise funds for the new building!

If you would like to make a monetary donation using a credit or debit card, please click the "Donate" button found at the far left or below.
If you would like to make a monetary donation using check or cash, please visit the Library.
If you would like to purchase a Friends of the Library tote or a Library t-shirt, please visit the Library. The tote is $15 and the shirts are $10 for youth sizes and $15 for adult sizes. More details are available on the Friends of the Library page.
If you are interested in volunteering, please consider joining our Friends of the Library group by contacting the Library at 334-774-5480.

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