FAYETTEVILLE -- The city's public library has come a long way since opening in the courthouse basement.
The Fayetteville Public Library was born a century ago this month with almost 900 books and some volunteers stuffed into two rooms in the basement of the Washington County Courthouse. Fayetteville was home to about 5,000 people back then.
Fayetteville Public Library special election
• When: Aug. 9, with early voting starting Aug. 2
• What: Whether to raise the dedicated library property tax from 1 mill to 3.7 mills temporarily to cover construction bonds before eventually settling at 2.5 mills. In Arkansas, 1 mill generally equals $1 in taxes for every $5,000 in property’s market value.
• Why: Library officials say the increases will cover an expansion and shore up maintenance and renovation needs at the Blair Library building.
Source: Staff report
The library almost immediately went into a growth spurt that hasn't ended since, outgrowing one home after another through the decades. Today it holds hundreds of thousands of materials within 88,000 square feet in the three-story building at Mountain Street and School Avenue.
Perhaps fittingly, library leaders say they need more space again, and voters will decide in August whether to devote more property taxes toward an expansion and other improvements.
"We thought it was going to be good for at least 20 or 30 years," said Ann Henry, a retired University of Arkansas associate professor and volunteer leader of the fundraising campaign in the early 2000s to build the library's current home. "Twelve years later, it's bursting at the seams."
The library began with donated books and an annual budget of about $840, equivalent to about $2,400 today, according to a library history on its website and Northwest Arkansas Times archives.
Within less than a decade, the number of books shot up tenfold. The library colonized three more rooms in the courthouse basement before beginning a sort of decades-long downtown hot-potato game in search of more space.
It moved first in 1927 to a small green cottage, since demolished, near where The Chancellor Hotel now stands. Ten years later the library switched to the second floor of City Hall, now home to offices and City Council and Planning Commission meetings.
In 1962, when John F. Kennedy was president and the first Wal-Mart was opening in Rogers, the library finally got a dedicated home. The two-story Roberta Fulbright Memorial Building on East Dickson Street opened June 4 that year in front of a crowd 1,000 strong, according to a story in the Times.
Through all of its moves and changes, the library attracted a devoted and growing group of supporters and patrons. A voracious reader of library books as a girl in Tulsa, Henry came to Fayetteville for her master's degree the same year the Fulbright building opened and often took her children to its children's section.
"It was already packed," she said. "Everything was filled, and there was just no room to expand. You didn't really have room for your workers."
David Johnson, the library's current director, also went to the Fulbright library as a college student for some lighter reading than in his textbooks, he said. His mother had long been a librarian in central Arkansas, and it was "ingrained" in him "the library is for everyone and everything."
Fayetteville's couldn't hold everything despite two expansions, so its leaders and supporters pushed for another move. In 2000, voters approved an 18-month sales tax to help make it happen. Locals made large donations, including $3 million from Jim Blair in memory of his grandmother, aunt and late wife, all lovers of learning. Architect Jeffrey Scherer, an Arkansas graduate who has worked on more than 100 libraries across the country, designed the building.
The Blair Library opened in 2004 and remains a bustling corner of downtown. And by some accounts, it's closer to Johnson's vision of a place with something for everyone.
Light spilled through tall windows Thursday afternoon into the colorful children's section and the more subdued teen area. Dozens of people read quietly in a large reading room or off in the corners, surrounded by shelves and cases of books, audio books and DVDs. Others worked in the computer lab or at banks of computers, which can range in use from job searches to less-serious video games. Parents and kids filed in and out past the coffee shop, most of them clutching a book or two -- or 10.
"It's paradise for me," said Kolt Burton, 10, a fan of the library's fantasy fiction books, performances and computers. He said he often leaves with a stack of books in the summer, all carefully chosen after reading the covers and first page.
"I can hardly keep up with the amount of books he reads," said Tonya Landrum, Kolt's mother. The pair use the library's online check-out and pickup service, its audio books for trips and attend reading and children's programs in the summer, she said.
"To me the library is one of the best parts of living here," Landrum said.
The library was visited more than 600,000 times in 2014 for its materials, regular music and author events, Scherer said earlier this year. He came back to design the possible expansion, with detailed plans expected next month.
The library was named Library Journal's 2005 Library of the Year and shortly afterward received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design silver certification for its energy efficiency and building materials. Smaller towns have used it as a model for expanding their libraries, Henry said, calling it a "role model for what you can do in your own community."
"I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't realize how great it was going to be and how much it was going to help people," she said.
Johnson said he and the library board are trying to keep the library as familiar and homey as it was in a cottage while meeting the growing demand. The board has made budget cuts, raised fees and put off maintenance in the past few years while preparing for a possible expansion from the library's southern side.
"We're beginning to hear more and more about how much we mean," he said. "I feel like we've got not only tremendous support but building momentum."
NW News on 06/12/2016