By Ginny Hamilton

On Monday, December 18, 2023, the Amherst Town Council voted 12-0-1 to increase the borrowing cap for the Jones Library Building Project, clearing the way for the renovation and expansion to proceed. Appropriately, much of the discussion preceding the vote focused on Project finances and funding. Let’s step back for a moment to remind ourselves why the Jones Library Renovation and Expansion is necessary.

Libraries are more essential to the strength of our communities than ever, especially in uncertain times when clear and trustworthy information is hard to find. More than a place to borrow books, libraries have become vital community centers. Libraries offer a common space where people meet for cultural and educational events, where job seekers come for help, where vulnerable residents use technology they can’t otherwise access, where teens do research and their homework, where toddlers and their parents connect and build community, and where immigrants learn English and pursue citizenship. 

The Jones Library is a good example – the rare public space that is used by 230,000 people each year from all walks of life and from across generations not just to borrow books but also to gather for all kinds of educational and civic activities that enrich our town. 

Yet every day, Jones Library patrons and staff deal with a building that just doesn’t work. The critical services our Library provides have outgrown the space we have. The iconic building itself needs significant repairs and upgrades. Major issues include:

• The leaking atrium threatens the integrity of the building. The atrium was constructed without adequate drainage for rain or melting snow, which collects in the gutters on the side of the glass roof and then leaks into the rooms below. Repeated repair attempts have been unsuccessful. Leaks during an intense rainstorm in August 2023 closed the Library for three days. Storm damage to the fire suppression system could have forced the Library to remain closed for significantly longer.
• The obsolete heating and cooling system (HVAC) leaks into the Library’s irreplaceable Special Collections. Because the Library cannot operate without adequate heating and cooling, the increasingly unreliable HVAC system threatens day-to-day functioning.
• The last renovation occurred before passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, so the entire building must be brought into compliance with the current building code and mandated accessibility standards. Making the Jones fully accessible to all is also the right thing to do for all patrons.

The Jones Library Building Project is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to remedy all these shortcomings and create the flexible space needed to meet the demands of current and future patrons. Plans underway this year will:

• Restore the 1928 historic building and reopen parts of the interior currently not open to the public.
• Upgrade antiquated infrastructure, including heating, cooling, and fire suppression systems. 
• Create a children’s department on one floor with enough space to meet the needs of all children and families who want to benefit from our Library. 
• Create a safe, dedicated teen space, including a makerspace that allows teens to learn from experimentation and each other while sharing ideas and equipment in collaborative projects.
• Add dedicated classrooms and tutoring rooms for the Library’s award-winning ESL program.
• Triple the number of public computers and modernize IT infrastructure.
• Create a larger, fully climate-controlled space for the historical and literary materials housed in Special Collections, including permanent, dedicated space for Amherst’s Civil War Tablets.
• Improve the work environment for staff including air quality, sight lines, dedicated program spaces, and an accessible break room.
• Decrease the Library’s carbon footprint by eliminating the use of fossil fuels, significantly increasing energy efficiency, and using low carbon building materials.
• Use universal design to make the building accessible to all.
• Foster functional and efficient spaces designed for how libraries are used today with flexibility for how libraries will be utilized in the future.

With key elements addressing sustainability, historic preservation, children and families, lifelong learning, equity and belonging, community and culture, everyone can find a piece of the project to support. The Jones Library Renovation and Expansion provides an opportunity to build together the Amherst we’ve always been and the Amherst we want to be.

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Schedule a Library tour this month!

Perhaps you haven’t been inside the Library in a while. Perhaps you’ve never taken a tour to see the rabbit warren of back stairwells and hidden workrooms not open to the public. Perhaps you have a favorite spot of worn carpeting in the children’s room you’d like to visit one more time before it’s gone.  Don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate the old before we usher in the new. Email to schedule your tour: info@joneslibrarycapitalcampaign.org

Currently employed by the Friends of the Jones Libraries to manage the Capital Campaign fundraising efforts, Ginny Hamilton (she/they) has worked in campaign organizing and advocacy for social change for over 30 years. Ginny lives in South Amherst with spouse and teen, two parakeets, and too many mice to count.