Project 2: Proposal to create Reference Library

Dear President of this proposal and Board Members,

Thank you for the opportunity to apply for the Creating New Libraries grant. I am sure you will find Joe Six Pack Library a wonderful place for the public to again enjoy reading. Our new library is a public library with the intended user to be the youth in the small, yet mighty town of Ada, Oklahoma. This library will allow expanded learning opportunities through programs and services for the youth of Ada that encourage reading, learning, and cultural diversity understanding; through a strong reference collection and services that will provide timely and accurate information in a variety of formats.

Since the nearest recognizable cities are Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (90 minutes away) and Dallas, Texas (3 hours away), the need for an innovative and new library in the small progressive City of Ada. Known as a great town for businesses to expand, (http://www.adaworks.org/Default.aspx) the residents of this small town passed a sales tax to help increase economic opportunities. This allowed the workforce competitive pay and new opportunities to grow and develop. With just over 16,500 residents (U.S. Census Bureau Fact Finder, http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&_name=ada&_state=04000US40&_county=ada&_cityTown=ada&_zip=&_sse=on&_lang=en&pctxt=fph), the population is primarily white (almost 74%) and American Indian (just at 15 %). Twenty five percent of Ada residents age 25 and older have a bachelor’s or advanced college degree, while 79% is a High School graduate or higher. (http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=Search&geo_id=&_geoContext=&_street=&_county=ada&_cityTown=ada&_state=04000US40&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&pctxt=fph&pgsl=010&show_2003_tab=&redirect=Y).
Though Ada is a hopeful city with many possibilities for businesses to one day expand, it is currently a home of industries such as manufacturing, service, and high-tech sectors (Ada’s city website: http://www.adaok.com/demographics.htm). The three main industries in Ada are: Agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting; manufacturing; Government workers (local, state, and/or federal). With a high desire to better educate themselves, Ada residents currently have two public libraries within the city limits: the East Central University Library (academic) and the Hugh Warren Memorial Library. The East Central University Library is housed at the four-year college (City of Ada website: http://www.adaok.com/demographics.htm) and thus is not all that beneficial to children. It is open Monday – Thursday from 8 a.m. – 10 p.m., Friday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. – 1 p.m., and Sunday 2 p.m. – 8 p.m. A special note is posted on the College’s website, http://www.ecok.edu/library/information/hours.asp, states that “there is no Reference help from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. on Thursdays or anytime on Saturdays.
The Hugh Warren Memorial Library is a great public library. It is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. – 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (http://www.adapl.okpls.org/) however, since it is the only library that is open to the public, there is a need for an additional public library due to the demands of the schools and increasing children’s population. There are 17 schools in Ada, (http://oklahoma.publicschoolsreport.com/schools/OK/Ada.html), ten elementary schools (only one serving Preschool to First grade students), three junior high schools, three high schools, and one college.

The Joe Six Pack Library will be a brand new, state of the art library in this town with expanded hours of operation to help not only school-aged children and any daytime users, but to also offer more study and research opportunities to students from middle school through college. The new library will be opened from 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. Monday – Friday, Saturdays from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Sundays from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. These hours of operation should supplement the other two library’s hours and also be a little more inviting than the college library for the upper grade level students that may currently have to go to the college library for reference/research.
Some services that will be provided to the new library’s users will include a reference/research center, an interlibrary loan department to borrow and loan library materials to the other two libraries within in the town of Ada, and a professional and friendly support center that will be updated with accurate and timely reference sources.

The Joe Six Pack Library staff believe in the motto that the patron comes first with a strong emphasis on supplying great customer service. The reference staff, clerical staff, and shelving staff, as well as volunteers will be the best fit for the library visitors. The staff will be amiable and approachable to all library users.

The reference area of the Joe Six Pack Library will be located in the middle of the library and serve all library patrons. The central access point of the reference desk will be circular in shape instead of a traditional desk facing one direction. The design of the reference desk is to help welcome any users to take advantage of the services available at the desk and the surrounding reference collection. Typical reference materials will include the most recent True Value Summaries, consumer guides (i.e. Car and Driver books, Kelly Bluebooks), almanacs, encyclopedias, subject specific encyclopedias, statistical data books, dictionaries and thesauri, atlases & maps, yearbooks, local documents, library and information science items (i.e. Library Journals and The New York Public Library Desk Reference, Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everything in the Cosmos, from Our Brains to Black Holes by Charles Seife), genealogy and family history items (The American Resting Place: 400 Years of History Through Our Cemeteries and Burial Grounds by Marilyn Yalom), college catalogs, phonebooks, and much, much more.

Caddy corner to the reference desk will be various online public access computers for patrons to use to browse the library collections on their own and/or to take advantage of the online subscriptions to various databases available to library card holders. These public access computers will be separate from the internet stations/computer area of the library. The types of online databases will include Ebscohost, Grolier online, Worldbook Online Reference, Heritage Quest, Opposing Viewpoints, Novelist, etc. Another service that will also be available will be online homework help, an “Ask a Librarian” feature, and downloadable audiobooks for an overall library 2.0 experience.

With this grant, all of these amazing features would become reality and allow the wonderful residents of Ada an opportunity to continue to grow educationally and have additional resources for them at every level of necessity. From school-aged children to adults trying to sell their vehicle, all patrons will have a chance to enjoy this state-of-the-art library. Thank you for your consideration of this grant proposal. I and the residents of Ada, anxiously await your response.


Sincerely,



My First Name & Last Name
Library Designer Extraordinaire