Friday, July 4, 2008

Library Master Plan

The executive summary of the Atlanta-Fulton Library Master Plan as drafted by it's director, John Szabo, leads off by clearly calling for the renovation of the existing Central Branch and NOT for building a new $173,000,000 Central Branch, as desired (and pushed for) by Commissioner Robb Pitts; a disastrous idea that would lead the county toward unprecedented debt.


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Your Library's Facility Master Plan

Executive Summary


The stakeholders of the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System have realized for some time that a comprehensive master plan for library facilities is needed. It was clear that our Board of Commissioners and Library Board of Trustees needed and wanted a plan to guide decisions on facilities: identifying where citizens are unserved, where they are underserved, where libraries are most needed, what is the optimal size, and what improvements need to be made to our existing facilities-a plan that will examine these issues for the entire service area, not just one neighborhood or community. Most importantly, this much needed and desired plan must be fair, unbiased, and based on good information and valid, authoritative data. I believe this plan accomplishes this.

With the excellent assistance of the Sizemore Group, the Fulton County General Services Department, the Department of Environment and Community Development, the Atlanta Housing Authority and many others, this plan makes recommendations for:

• Ten new branch libraries-five of which will replace services at seven existing facilities.
• Major expansion and improvements of the Auburn Avenue Research Library
• Complete reprogramming and renovation of the Central Library
• Renovations and improvements at most existing branch facilities.

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The above statement is just the intro to the Library Master Plan. For those interested in reading the entire master plan, it can be be found by clicking here.