We had so much fun at our grand opening last Friday! Thank you so much to everyone who turned out for the ribbon cutting and the open house!
Here is the crowd gathering for the ribbon cutting.
Library staff members, current and former library and Friends board members, and other key supporters of the capital campaign were at the front for the ribbon cutting.
The staff was a wall of purple in the center.
People used to say we would get a new library in Berryville when pigs fly. We embraced the imagery for the whole grand opening.
County Judge David Writer, representing Carroll County, held up one end of the flying pig ribbon.
Treasurer Sally Phillips, representing the City of Berryville, held up the other.
Arkansas US Congressman Steve Womack also attended. If it were not for the $1 million in Community Project Funding that he secured for us in 2023, we would not have been able to fully fund the building project after construction costs soared post-pandemic.
Friends vice president Glenda Allison gave some opening remarks.
Friends treasurer Karen Johnson cut the ribbon. We felt like it was only fair since she also cut every check for the construction project. 🙂
Watch the ribbon cutting ceremony on our Facebook page!
The initial surge into the library after the ribbon cutting.
Former Friends president Mary Knight led the way into the new library. She always said she wanted us to finish it while she could still enjoy it. We did it, Mary!
KTHS was on hand to do a live remote for us. Thanks so much for all the wonderful promotion!
Local banks also supported us with free food. A big thank you to them for providing the food and our Friends for handling the logistics for everyone!
Anstaff provided dessert and sodas.
Arvest brought popcorn.
Bank of 1889 had a station for people to help themselves to water in the Arkansas August heat.
CS Bank provided coffee from Zorba’s and doughnuts in the hour before the ribbon cutting.
Equity provided sack lunches of smoked hot dogs, chips, and water for everyone.
We wanted a family fun day and a big thank you to our Friends group for also organizing that for us on the outside.
There were bounce houses, courtesy of Local Hype.
And we also had fun temporary tattoos and beautiful balloon animals being made in the parking lot, courtesy of the Airbenders Balloon Team of Meadow Muffin Menagerie.
We have tried to avoid posting pictures of the inside of the new library until now because we wanted to preserve the surprise. And that was a recurring comment from people we talked to during the open house–how truly stunned and pleased they were with how beautiful the inside was.
Now that we no longer have to keep it under wraps, let’s take a tour of our new home!
This is a great view of the front of the new library right after the ribbon cutting.
This is our custom-made front circulation desk, courtesy of Woodhaven Custom Cabinets, here in Berryville. The front side is where we check books in and out. The back is our new business center, which includes a space for patrons to make copies, fax, print, and more in much more comfortable and convenient quarters than before.
In the middle of opening day celebrations and our staff-led open house, we were also conducting regular library business.
As promised, our favorite library goose Penelope is very much enjoying her new view from the front circulation desk, right next to a beautiful bouquet received during grand opening.
Here is our adult collection. Look at the space on those shelves! It was very frustrating to take books off the shelf or add them in the old library because they were packed in like sardines. Now, it is far more pleasant for patrons to browse and for staff to shelve and shelf-read. And we have much more room for displays!
More of the adult collection and our public computers. (Look at all those books, audiobooks, and movies we moved!) We also have space on the computer tables now for people to use the Wifi on their own devices comfortably.
We also now have a cool new teen section, opposite our front circulation desk! In the old library, this was a very small cramped space. I was very pleased to notice multiple teens camping out and playing battleship and hanging out in the very comfy egg chairs. That’s what we have hoped for! (Some of us tested all the chairs before opening. They are all very comfy. :D)
We also now have 2 soundproofed study rooms. In the old library, there was no private place to study or for groups to meet. These rooms can host up to 4 people. They also have lovely artwork donated to us by Dr. Shannon Card.
Here is our conference room. It provides a meeting space for up to 15 people and is where we plan to host board meetings, as well as other specific programs, like book clubs and Craft and Chat.
And here is our meeting room, which is where we plan to host most programming. It can hold up to 30 people and has full AV capabilities, allowing for presentations. We plan to start letting the public book our new meeting areas (the meeting room, the conference room, and the study rooms) in September.
We have 2 circulation desks now! This is the back one opposite the children’s area, also custom-made for us by Woodhaven Custom Cabinets.
And this is our beautiful new children’s area, named in honor of our late director Carol Ann Engskov. We miss you, Carol Ann.
We love that the shelves are a much more inviting height for kids than the ones in our old library. It also has our new Storytime stage, which Ms. Jen is very excited about. 🙂
We also have a nice climate-controlled lobby at the front entrance. The Friends were hard at work staffing a membership table there during the grand opening celebration. Starting in September, we will restart hosting book sales in the lobby like we did in the old library.
A very special thank you to Larry Plumlee, who took pictures for us during the ribbon cutting and open house, as well as at a special reception sneak peek for Friends members the night before.
Also a big thank you to Julia Borkowski for sharing so many wonderful pictures of the day with us!
And another special thank you to our own Kristy Noble Tesch, who also took many great pics of the day and has handled our PR and served as fundraising point person for the entire campaign.
To see more pics from the day, please check out our gallery pages.
We have continued to host events throughout the grand opening week, and we end this Friday, August 12, with a special free showing of the documentary Free for All: The Public Library. Doors open at 6:15 pm and the event runs from 6:30-8:30 pm in the meeting room. We will watch the movie and then host a short discussion about the film. We would love to see you there!
What’s your favorite part of the new library? Did you attend the grand opening? Tell us in the comments!
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