ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 9, 1996 TAG: 9604090045
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: CLAYTON BRADDOCK STAFF WRITER
Libraries and children share problems, needs and directions. They both have to grow and find a new home.
Consider the Pearisburg Public Library, born in 1962 and bursting at the seams.
It has been growing in the town's Municipal Building since 1965. Now a grown-up, it's ready to cross to the next generation.
You wouldn't know how much it has stretched out since the 1960s. And you won't recognize it when it moves into the former Mormon Church on Fort Branch Road this summer.
You might not recognize the first town library 34 years ago - about the size of a big bathroom. That old library - just up the street from a shoe repair business near the center of town - is part of a building that now houses town equipment.
Part of Sandra Robertson's education was learned in the old library where she read "mostly fiction" and did homework. "I was down there nearly every school day," she said. "I worked hard."
Robertson remembers it better than many town residents of that era. And why wouldn't she? Robertson knows what a library should be. She has worked for the library for 27 years, the last 10 as chief librarian.
Her office and the one where the secretary sits in the next cubbyhole are about the same size as the town's old public library.
When the first library's books and other materials were moved to the municipal building in 1965, the 1,700 square feet of space was designed to hold 10,000 volumes. In the rush for knowledge, the new library will contain 5,500 square feet.
The new library will accommodate an additional 17,000 volumes that had to be stored because of cramped conditions.
Pearisburg took this leap ahead with a $700,000 loan from the Rural Economic and Community Development agency, the former Farmer's Home Administration. That loan will pay to remodel the municipal building and make other changes at the Pearisburg Community Center and the library.
Phase I - remodeling of library - has begun and is expected to open in mid-June. Phase II will follow with a $70,000 federal grant and $58,000 from patrons and some additional revenue from book sales and other contributions.
"I'm sure this new library will have a strong impact as the town grows and new residents move to it," said Tom Miller, chairman of the library advisory board.
Some things will change: the former church steeple will be removed; a stage will become office space; an elevator will be installed to serve the handicapped; sunlight will stream in through big windows placed on the back of the building; there will be a large reading room.
In Phase III of construction, the library will include added space for special technology rooms and computers.
Some things won't change: there will still be only 31/2 members of the library staff; and genealogy will still be a library specialty. "People from as far away as California have come to our library searching for family names and histories," Robertson said.
The Pearisburg library, always a town resource, will continue its other mission: serving residents in the rural areas of Giles county. About half of the library's readers are not town residents, Robertson said. Some come from as far away as West Virginia.
Pembroke's diminutive and beloved library a block off U.S. 460 will still be small. Though Narrows has its own library and Rich Creek has begun one, Pearisburg's new one will lure the visitors.
Nobody is expecting the old library to shudder with envy come opening day of the new one. But some longtime residents say anything can happen with growing pains.
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