For frantic MSU students with finals week looming on their mind, it’s easy to forget that libraries are more than just places to spend a caffeine-fueled night of cramming. But following an anonymous gift, the East Lansing Public Library is looking to expand and become a community staple.
Last week the library held a Books, Bites and Bids event to accept donations and hold an auction as a fundraiser for the library. At this event, East Lansing Public Library Director Kristin Shelley had an announcement to make. About a week before the event, an anonymous East Lansing resident donated $1.5 million to fund capital improvements for the library.
“A gift like this is so incredibly generous and selfless,” Shelley said. The donor did not ask for any naming rights on the library’s donor wall. “He’s a very private person who just wanted to say thank you.”
In response, ELPL has announced a campaign to build on that donation and raise community funds to match or even surpass that amount.
“It’s sad to say that in this day and age $1.5 million won’t even get us that much,” Shelley said. “But it’s extremely thrilling and exciting to be able to start planning once we receive that check.”
The library sees this as the first phase of a planned development, the total costs of which equate to about $11 million.
ELPL has partnered with local development company C2AE to begin discussing possible improvements to the structure. The Lansing-based developer was chosen for their reputation on renovating libraries across the state.
The development plans include re-doing the floor plan, adding a dynamic children’s area and group area and expanding the maker studios which include 3D printers, sewing machines, keyboards, audio and video equipment.
“It’s thrilling and exciting to be able to move ahead with this,” Shelley said.
Libraries across the country have faced a problem of relevancy during the past two decades because of the amount of information available elsewhere. Through the maker studios, ELPL has shifted from a place of information consumption to a place of information production, maintaining their relevancy in the 21st century, she said.
“Everybody said libraries are gone when the Internet came, then Google, then Amazon,” Shelley said. “There’s always something that comes along that people say there won’t be libraries anymore.”
Optimistically, construction would start as soon as this summer, she said. The library is hoping to raise up to $2 million in donations by May 2016.
