Monday, November 2, 2009

History of the Project

The Sherborn Library is the living room of the community. The institution has served as one of the few remaining public gathering spaces for all generations to meet and find common interests or distinctions.

The Library was dedicated in 1971, a gift to the community from Richard and Mary B. Saltonstall who resided in Sherborn beginning in 1927, and who contributed to developing the Town's unique character for more than half a century. The high quality of the design and construction of the building placed it in the forefront of peer libraries in Massachusetts at the time; indeed, because of the community's fine stewardship of its preservation and maintenance, the building is still impressive.

The building is now almost 39 years old and renovations are necessary to update the space to meet the current level of standard services. The space allocated to children's services, space for media collections, and public access workstations are no longer adequate. The Library has not been updated to comply with current building code, including compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and safety and security systems. Also, the heating, venting, and air conditioning systems are original to the building and, clearly, more efficient systems are available today, including those that offer Green design benefits.

In July 2007, the Library received a $40,000 grant from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The grant was matched by $20,000 from the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Foundation for a total grant of $60,000 to complete a professional building assessment and design study for renovating the building. The grant and its provisions were accepted at Sherborn Annual Town Meeting 2007.

The Library Trustees, an elected board of nine, worked with me to complete the prerequisites for expending the state grant, which is now in the Town's accounts. The prerequisites included engaging the services of an independent Sherborn citizens' committee to review the Trustees' self-study on the state of the facility.

In April the Citizens' Review Committee met with the Trustees and provided their helpful insights to our work. By July, those insights were incorporated into the Library's self-study and the Building Assessment document was filed with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) for their review. In August, we received a letter from the MBLC stating our work was accepted and that the Trustees had met all the prerequisites. We were given permission to proceed with hiring the project manager and architect who would manage the pre-design and schematics stage for updating the Library facility.

The Library Trustees are currently evaluating the nine eligible proposals from project managers and are arriving at the short list of semi-finalists. There is evidence that several firms have extensive experience working with public library facilities and are well-versed in current standards of library design.

We look forward to public presentations in the near future to describe the scope of our project. We are committed to following every avenue to the community to ensure that the character of our much-loved Library continues to reflect its people.

Best regards,
Elizabeth Johnston
Library Director