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OPINION

Much work has gone into library plan

John Peterson
For Post-Crescent Media

When I was first appointed to the Appleton Public Library Board of Trustees by the mayor, and confirmed by the Common Council, several years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into.

I’ve always loved books, so it seemed like a good fit. After law and graduate school, my wife and I moved back to Appleton in 1982, and we were wowed by the state-of-the-art, beautiful new library. It was a part of our daughters’ childhood, and we have loved visiting the children’s section with our granddaughter.

Despite my awareness of the information and technology revolution of the last 30 years, I was profoundly naive of the increasing inadequacy of our building to meet current demands. When the library was built in 1981, the collection had 168,365 items; it now has 342,849. There were no computers available for public use; there are now 69. There were 110 meetings per year; there are now 4,183. Annual checkouts were 593,123; they are now 1,448,958. Finally, the library in 1981 had 600 visitors per day. Now, it has 1,600.

It became obvious to me that, without major renovations, our building can’t accommodate the demands of the people of Appleton in the 21st century.

There had been work done to figure out how to react to our problem but, during the winter of 2010-11, we developed a very deliberate and objective three-step process to evaluate the library’s future.

Step 1 was to study and evaluate what the likely demands would be. This process — which has required more than 1,000 hours of work by members of the Library Board, members of the board of the Friends of the APL, and the APL staff — had nothing to do with evaluating our current building. We were only trying to understand what the likely future demands of our community would be.

We conducted a series of what were called Community Conversations, first held with volunteer groups in various aldermanic districts around the city and then among certain focus groups to ensure that we had heard from all perspectives.

We brought in outside speakers who presented well-attended, public presentations on urban planning, with an emphasis on the role of a public library in future, urban life. We made site visits, collectively and individually, to other libraries that had been recently built or renovated in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Finally, we put together a diverse group of people who are active in the community who, under the guidance of a professional facilitator, addressed numerous questions concerning the role of the library in the future of Appleton.

This work continued for 2½ years, culminating in our 2013 strategic plan report, APL 150, which you can find on our website.

Once this analysis was complete, we proceeded with Step 2. We evaluated the facility needs of the future library, trying to go through as objective and quantifiable a process as possible of judging whether our facility and site or numerous other alternatives would best serve the future demands.

Several of the sites were eliminated because they weren’t big enough. The remaining 12 sites, including our present location, were examined on the same grid of relevant factors relating to the projected needs and were ranked numerically. To assure objectivity, the site comparison was managed and directed by outside consultants. The bluff site was ranked the highest. The Library Board voted to approve this recommendation, which has allowed us to continue to investigate this location for suitability.

To get to this point has taken us three years, with a tremendous amount of public participation. We are embarking on Step 3 of the process. The Friends of the APL has embarked on a mission to raise private contributions to support the project. The Common Council passed a “resolution of necessity,” which will allow Michiels Fox Banquets, Trinity Lutheran Church and the city to begin negotiations to hopefully reach the conclusion that all three believe it would be best for the APL to relocate to the bluff site.

On Aug. 27, the Library Board heard a preliminary presentation from an architectural firm about what a new library at the bluff site might look like. On Sept. 16, the board will vote on whether to approve those preliminary plans in concept.

The laws of Wisconsin that distribute jurisdiction between the Library Board and the Common Council are complicated. We’re committed to sending to the Council a proposal for a new facility that will best meet the future needs of the citizens of Appleton.

It’s up to the Council and the mayor to determine funding levels, how this might allow us to improve downtown parking, how such a new library would allow the traffic engineers to eliminate some of our traffic problems and how this new library could increase private development and, as a consequence, create taxable property to minimize the tax burden.

I’ve been a principal owner of a business on College Avenue in downtown for 30 years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about business, it’s that you either invest in your future or you stagnate and, eventually, decay.

The Appleton Public Library project isn’t about taking care of us. It’s about taking care of our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They may not be able to support the effort. We can.

— John Peterson is the president of the Appleton Public Library Board of Trustees. He can be reached at pcletters@postcrescent.com
https://www.postcrescent.com/story/opinion/columnists/2014/09/07/much-work-gone-library-plan/15150683/
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