A New Starr Is Born
by Frances Sandiford
The first time the Starr Library in Rhinebeck had to discard books to make room for new ones, they knew that their twenty-seven-year-old facility had outgrown its space. Things got worse. Director Dona McLaughlin says that patrons stand in line for two available computers, researchers vie for seats in the reading rooms, and children search for titles on overpacked shelves. Everyone agreed, an expansion was the only solution.
After months of planning and consultation, the Library Trustees, Friends, and Campaign Steering Committee have launched the Starr Reborn Campaign, a 2.5 Million initiative to modernize and expand the present library. The new building will add 10,000 square feet and offer patrons a dozen new services. In 1862, space for the Town's first library opened in two rented rooms in the historic Starr Building on 28 Montgomery Street. The book collection consisted of 917 volumes. With minimal changes, the library continued at this location for the next 100 years. Then in 1967 community contributions, along with money from the Thomas Thompson Trust, was enough to erect the present building on West Market Street.
Not long ago, a proposal for expansion might have met with more resistance, but today, Rhinebeck's population has burgeoned, and "expansion" has become a buzzword. In the case of the Starr Library, circulation has doubled to 70,000 patrons over twenty years.
How will expansion change the familiar library on West Market Street? According to the Starr Reborn Committee, the expansion will be attached to the present building, jutting out beside and in front of it toward the road to Rhinecliff. The new and older building will be joined by a walkway and will be embellished in front by a glass-enclosed bay window.
McLaughlin cautions that all plans for the interior of the new library are tentative. As it stands now, the lower level will have a community meeting room, a local history room, small kitchen, and an archival storage and research area for the use of the Rhinebeck Historical Society. Upstairs in what is the present library will be a new children's wing. The upstairs of the new building will feature a patron friendly periodical rooms, a quiet study room, a small young adult library, a business and skills development collection, seventy comfortable chairs for library patrons and researchers, an enhanced reference collection, a computer/technology room for user-groups and kids doing homework, and, finally, a new audiovisual collection including CDs, DVDs, and CD-roms.
The Library also expects to acquire 36,000 more books, periodicals and other materials. As with any expansion, the main question is, where will money come from? Early into the Reborn Campaign, the Trustees of the Thomas Thompson Trust guaranteed $300,000 for the enterprise. The remainder of the money will come from contributions and a donation from Starr's endowment. In addition, the Trustees will ask the Rhinebeck taxpayers to "confirm their commitment to the future of the Starr Library" by passing a referendum that will be on the November 4th ballot. With 80% of adult residents holding library cards, Rhinebeck is in the top tier of cardholders per capita in New York State. Yet public financial support is only about half the per capita support received by the average library in Dutchess County.
As the expansion comes into being, the present Starr Library will keep operating with its current staff of Dona McLaughlin, Director; Assistant Director David Wanzer; children's librarian Brooke Stevens; and children's program director Susan Millen. They will keep the spirit of the library as it began in two rented rooms in 28 Montgomery Street 150 years ago.
