LITTLE ROCK — More than a century after moving into a Pecan Street building near downtown Helena-West Helena, the Phillips County Library has a new home and several new programs aimed at boosting the economy and reducing illiteracy.
Today, the county library will open in its new 13,842-square-foot facility on Porter Street, about two blocks from the old maroon building that served as home to both the library and the Phillips County Museum. The museum will remain at the Pecan Street building.
“This will give the library its own identity and let us offer more things for our users,” said Linda Bennett, director of the Phillips County Library.
The library first opened in 1891 and remained in the same building about five blocks from the Mississippi River. It was the first public library in Arkansas and, at 119 years, held the longest continuous run at one place in the state, Bennett said.
Library officials began talking about moving in 1942, Bennett said, but the county couldn’t find an adequate facility for sale.
Last year, Phillips County bought the old Save-A-Lot grocery store on Porter Street and began refurbishing it for use by the library. The building and renovations cost $1.5 million, she said.
“We just ran out of space,” she said of the move.
The library tripled in size when it moved from its 4,000-square-foot building.
The new library features a conference room, a computer room with 18 computers - replacing the old location’s three computers - and a coffee shop.
Artwork that emphasizes Helena-West Helena’s agricultural and blues-music history hangs on walls.
“We want to keep the old Helena history, but we also want to make it more inviting to younger generations, too,” Bennett said.
“It’s really nice,” Phillips County Judge Don Gentry said. “I think this will help a lot of people. It’s one of the good things we’ve got going on here.”
Bennett said she hopes to hire additional library workers in the near future and keep the library open longer. Currently, the library will open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. She wants to extend the daily hours to 7 p.m. and open it on weekends.
She also plans to hold Spanish classes and English-to-Spanish translations, along with work-force service programs to help job seekers spruce up their resumes and seek employment.
Joe Black, the director of the Phillips County Literacy Council, said reading classes and book clubs will also hold meetings there.
“I think the library will put a focus on literacy,” he said. “This new library is a symbol for people to relate to. It’s a beautiful facility that you’ll want to go to.
“This area was made on row crops where education wasn’t emphasized,” he said. “You don’t overcome decades of problems in a few years. Slowly, but surely, I sense the community coming together and the library is a symbol of that.”
Gentry hopes people will use the resources at the library to help find employment.
“It’s going to be a plus for the county,” he said. “The library used to be just for books, but it’s a whole lot more now.”
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/27/2010