The New Leesburg, Florida Library

Dear Friends:

DREAMS DO COME TRUE!  Leesburg will soon have a beautiful new library.  After many years of make-shift settings, Leesburg will have a facility designed to be a real library.  We started years ago at a closet in the Woman's Club, then moved to the east end of the Community Building, then to a made-over post office, and then to the redesigned Sears Store.  Our City Commissioners have budgeted over $5 million to a new building we can call our own, and we are grateful for their commitment to culture and education.

During the planning phase begun in January, 2003, a meeting of interested persons was held to hear what the community wanted.  The library staff surveyed users about the elements they wanted in a new library.  The team considered the proposed size of the building, the projected population growth for the next 20 years, and recommendations published by the Florida Library Association.  The library staff and the architect also considered the number of items presently available in the library, future items, furnishings, projected user population, and changes in technology.

The first draft resulted in a plan for a building over 50,000 square feet.  After several painstaking revisions, 40,238 square feet was determined to be affordable at a cost of $5 million.

The Friends of the Leesburg Library are committed to raising funds from private sources to enlarge the square footage as much as possible toward that original 50,000 square foot size.  Our wish list includes an enhanced building with a Florida sunroom where patrons can relax, an outdoor performance area and reading garden, enlarging the Friends' room for ongoing used book sales, more computer stations, private tutoring/study rooms, and self-check out stations.  We will display public art consisting of a bronze sculpture of Annie Oakley, two children reading on a bench, and an African -American grandmother reading to her grandchild.

Our fund raising for our wish list is NOW since it will be more cost effective to incorporate these enhancements into the building plans now rather than add them piece-meal over the years.

We hope you will want to help us make these big dreams come true by considering a donation.  Our new library will indeed be the most outstanding library in all of Central Florida and a showplace to anchor revitalized downtown Leesburg.

Nonette J. Hill
President
Friends of the Library