NEW LIBRARY BUILDING PROJECT
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.
Preliminary Floor Plan
The plan, linked below, is subject to change and not for building construction until approved by an architect.
Thank you to all of the Library Staff and the Board Members for providing input for the design. A big thank you to Jayden Driggers and Andrew Godeke for their hard work and patience in drawing up the plan.
Latest News!
Community Work Day - February 20th, 2021 Thank You to All of Our Hard Working Volunteers! Thank you to all of our volunteers and library staff who showed up bright and early on Saturday to work on renovations!
We worked on digging a trench for plumbing for additional bathrooms, opening up a doorway that was once closed, and working on removing the ugly floor tiles from the Family Dollar side.
Thank you again to Super Sav, Ozark Baptist Church, and Ben E. Keith Foods (Kelley Foods) for your generous contributions for lunch and Mr. David Speck for grilling it!
It's not too late to help! Contact us to learn more on how YOU can be a part of bringing our vision of a new, modern library to our community to life today!
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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.
Upcoming Fundraisers
Stay tuned for future plans for fundraising for our NEW Library!
Please click the above graphic for a monthly updated list of donors.
Last updated: March 2, 2021