Advocates to seek library expansion

By Scott Marshall

Published: September 3, 2008

Advocates will study how to expand Nelson Memorial Library which, at 4,361 square feet, is half the size recommended by state guidelines, a library official said.

A $12,000 feasibility study is planned, made possible by the Torn Land Memorial Trust Fund and Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, to identify options for the 20-year-old library at 8521 Thomas Nelson Highway.

For more information, visit http://www.jmrl.org, e-mail or call (434) 263-5904.

Along with the Nelson Library Advisory Commit-tee, advocates picked a Charlottesville architectural firm to study how to expand the library, which is in Lovingston and now has more than 5,000 visitors monthly.

“In the past five years, use has skyrocketed, due to the Internet and people looking for jobs, working on a resume, even doing taxes,” said John Halliday, director of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, which includes the Nelson branch.

“They need to have access to computers,” he said. “A lot of people don’t have high-speed access from their homes.

The study would identify how much more space is needed, how it could be provided and how much it would cost, Halliday said.

Nelson County provided $241,000 for the library budget last year, he said. The library system’s budget is $5.9 million and has 100,000 cardholders and 500,000 volumes, all of which are available through systemwide reservations or via a much smaller number of volumes at the Nelson library.

Nelson’s library size was based on a county population of 8,687, Halliday said. The county’s 2005 population had grown to 14,478. Under the standard of 0.6 square feet of library space per capita, then the library should be twice as big as it is now –– 8,687 square feet instead of 4,361 square feet, Halliday said.

Besides Nelson County, the library system serves Albemarle, Louisa and Greene counties and Charlottesville. The meeting is at 4 p.m. Sept. 15 at the library.