ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080061
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
Only two more browsing days at the Blacksburg branch library.
Starting Monday, the library will be closed for two weeks, plus or minus a few days, to begin the long-awaited shift to a newly completed addition, according to Jo Brown, assistant director of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library.
That's why the Blacksburg branch's staff of 18 will be pleased as punch if you stop by on Saturday or Sunday (the library is closed today) and leave with a big stack 'o books for a special extended seven-week checkout period.
The fewer books left on the shelves, the fewer books they'll have to schlep into the bright new addition. The library has a 56,877-volume collection, and Pamela Cadmus, branch director, estimates two-thirds of that is still on the shelves.
Isn't it really time you sat down and read "War and Peace?"
After the books, tables and fixtures are out of the current space, renovations will begin and stretch into the summer. Meanwhile, the new addition should open to the public by late March. The aim is to dedicate the finished project in September.
The shutdown and transfer have been pushed back until now by construction delays caused by weather and materials.
Monday's sign of progress comes along with a spot of good news on the financial front.
Library fund-raisers have passed the $67,000 mark in the first, "quiet" phase of their effort. That's still a far piece from their ultimate $300,000 goal, but it is enough to close a crucial gap in the $1.98 million construction cost, said Lee Johnston, a fund-raising committee member.
When the Library Board of Trustees recommended the low bid on the project in May 1995, it pledged to cover part of the cost by raising $67,100 from the community. That fund raising was part of the Library Board's plan to make up the difference between the $1.88 million bond sale that Montgomery County voters approved in a 1993 referendum, and the construction cost.
"We basically have closed the gap on bricks and mortar," Johnston said. In coming months, the committee will be making a much more public fund drive, keyed in part to the opening of the new section and completion of the entire project late this summer.
The $223,000 remaining on the fund-raising goal will go for furnishings, certain computer equipment and other finishing touches deliberately left out of the bond question to make it more politically palatable in 1993.
"When the people who use the library see the potential, I think that'll be a real push," Johnston said.
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. GENE DALTON/Staff Pamela Cadmus, director of theby CNBBlacksburg branch library, looks at what will be the new entrance
for the library. COLOR
2. Because the Blacksburg branch is allowing books to stay out
longer, 11-year-old Marcus Travis stocked up while on a trip to the
library Thursday. color