Here is a map showing the three proposed locations for a new Grand Forks Public Library. Consultants started with a list of 25 potential locations and, based on 26 specific criteria, gave each location option a “score.” The three proposed locations scored the highest of the original 25.
More information can be found here.
Here’s your virtual opportunity to go behind the scenes stacks of the current library. Please post your comments below.
Grand Forks Public Library staff members know some great stories—and these tales are not on the shelves. These are people’s stories of their own library experiences, such as:
– The young professional who came in daily to use the computers, printers and Internet access to fine-tune her resume and land her first career job.
– The gentleman who re-discovered mystery novels after losing his eyesight: he checks out several audio books each week.
– The young mom forging her way as a new full-time stay-at-home-parent to three young children, with the help of our weekly story times (she’s the first to admit it was wonderful to have a reason to shower before noon at least one day a week).
Share your tales
Please share your library story with us. We’d love to hear about it, and if you prefer, we’ll keep you as an anonymous author. Thanks in advance for telling your story.
Here’s how else you will be heard:
– Complete our survey (You could even win an iPad!)
– Comment here
– Comment on our Facebook page
– See upcoming community meetings
For nearly 120 years, Grand Forks has had a public library. It’s a key community asset. And it’s time for a new one. That much has been determined. Now we’d like your ideas on what this new library ought to include.
First, a bit of history about the Grand Forks Public Library
About 1894, a group of residents started keeping a growing collection of books in various rented spaces and allowing people “of good deportment” to borrow the books, which may have included these page-turners:
>> Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
>> Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book
>> John Muir’s The Mountains of California
By 1903, in part with a grant from the Carnegie Foundation, a permanent space for the library was built, where it grew its collections and services and remained until 1972.
By 1972, Library Board members, city government officials and residents obtained land for a new Grand Forks Public Library near Washington Street. At the time, this was the very southernmost part of the city. That’s where the library remains today.
Today, 37 years later, it is again apparent to the Library Board, government officials and residents that it’s time to improve the library’s facilities.
In 2008, a 17-member Task Force, appointed by the Library Board, looked at rejuvenating the library. Their key findings are detailed in the full needs assessment report and include:
>> Increasing pressures of new technology for library patrons
>> Growing collections that are outgrowing available space
>> Expanding services for existing and new populations
>> Inadequate parking space
That’s where we’ve been.
Now it’s time to share your ideas about the new Grand Forks Public Library. Where would you like it to be? What should it offer? When should it be open?
Other ways to be heard:
>> Complete our survey (You could even win an iPad!)
>> Comment here
>> Comment on our Facebook page
>> See upcoming community meetings
How many times in your life will you have the chance to express your opinions about your community library? Take advantage of this unique opportunity to be heard, and participate in this survey available Monday, November 15. You could win an iPad!
We’re working on rejuvenating the Grand Forks Public Library, and we’d love to hear your ideas on its location, offerings, services, programs, staff members, hours—whatever is on your mind for our library. Please send us your comments or join us on facebook.
speak up for your library 