Library Project Description

Richard Band, our library director, has created the following summary of the Indian Land Library project. He forwarded this to Brooke Moore of Sun City so that she could post it on the resident's message board.

Feel free to link to this anytime you find yourself needing to explain our project to someone new.

DEL WEBB LIBRARY AT INDIAN LAND
PROJECT DESCRIPTION


The Lancaster County Library Board is planning the construction of a new library in 2007 to serve the Indian Land area of the county. This project would contribute funds to help the library meet our Capital Campaign target goal of $700,000.

Del Webb, the developer of the Sun City Carolina Lakes community, has pledged $1.5 million and donated a two-acre site for the library. These funds will be secured by revenue bonds issued by Lancaster County this year.

The total cost of the library project is estimated at $2.2 million. Construction costs will be about $1.5 million for the 12,000 square-foot facility. The building will be designed for future expansion, given the likelihood of rapid gains in the population of the panhandle. The funds to be raised will go toward books and materials, shelving, furnishings, technology, equipment and architectural fees. Contributions will be sought from developers, businesses, foundations and individuals. To facilitate the campaign, the Del Webb Library Steering Committee has been established.

The library site is in a highly desirable location, in the planned commercial section west of Jim Wilson Road, 17 miles north of downtown Lancaster. It will be visible and convenient to everyone traveling Highway 521 between Lancaster and Pineville. Neighboring tenants will include a grocery store, two banks, a medical center and restaurants. We look forward to the challenge of meeting the needs of a thriving service area that ranges from Waxhaw Creek north to the state line.

Citizens of Indian Land have had a long wait for their library. The demand continues to grow as the rural landscape undergoes dramatic changes. The Sun City and Edenmoor developments alone will add 6,000 housing units over the next eight years. Other housing projects along the U.S. 521 and S.C. 160 corridors, along with new industries and business parks, will create more pressure for services. A strong public library is one of the institutions the corporate sector looks for in assessing an area’s quality of life and living standards. The library will serve as a unifying presence ... a gathering place for lifelong residents and newcomers alike.

The Indian Land Library will offer a full range of circulating materials: books, periodicals, DVDs and audiotapes. Public access computers will be available for online research, school projects, word processing and computer literacy training. Also planned is a multi-purpose room for public meetings, classroom space and use by civic clubs. A conference room and several small study rooms will be included. We will offer pre-school story times and programming for children and adults. With a new high school and middle school for Indian Land on the drawing board, the library will provide an important educational resource for students and for adult lifelong learners.

The library will be administered as a satellite of the headquarters library in Lancaster. For the first year of operations, three full-time and three part-time staff members will be trained. Construction could begin as early as February, 2007, with opening day around December or January. The timetable depends on the success of fund-raising and other preparations. Materials for the collections, for example, must be selected, ordered and processed beginning eight to ten months prior to opening day. The cost of the starter book collection will be about $225,000.

We are extremely excited about our plans for this vitally needed facility: more than a library, it will truly be a community center for residents of all ages. The Indian Land Library will be a positive asset and source of pride to the whole county.


Richard Band, Director
313 S. White St.
Lancaster, SC 29720

803-285-1502
lanclib@infoave.net

Information on Running a Capital Campaign

Here is a link to an article about how to start a capital campaign:

The Grantsmanship Center

Also, take a few minutes to look through the Friends of Libraries USA site. There is also a link to it on the right hand side.

Capital Campaign Steering Committee Meets

On May 22 the first meeting of the Indian Land Library Steering Committee took place. It was held at 7 p.m. at Belair United Methodist Church on Shelley Mullis Road.

The agenda was loose as the new members spent time introducing themselves to each other and brainstormed a few ideas for raising funds for the library.

Richard Band, Lancaster County Library Director, got the members up-to-speed with site and building plans.

The library, tentatively called the Del Webb Library at Indian Land (a Lancaster County Library), currently has 2 acres of property set aside by Del Webb at Sun City. Del Webb has also pledged $1.5 million to be used for building.

At this time Lancaster County has not pledged any funds for the building or its contents. The anticipated need is about $700,000 to $800,000 for fixtures and materials.

The committee scheduled the next meeting for June 19. Before the next meeting:

• Chris McGinn will begin drafting some sort of logo and graphics for printed materials for our campaign.
• Richard Band will contact a librarian at Spartanburg that has had experience in fundraising. We are hoping that person can come give us some fundraising tips.
• Richard, Karen Paulson, and Linda McCorkle will meet with architect Danny Shelley in the next couple of weeks to see if we can get ideas for how to draft a list of tangible items for people to sponsor ("your $$ donation will buy this particular item or room).
• Richard and Karen will also try to meet with The Lancaster News about a fall festival they are proposing to put on for the library in conjunction with Del Webb.
• Setting up this blog to promote communication was on the list of items to accomplish.
• Karen will charge the Indian Land Action Council and its library interest group with working on a community-wide fundraising effort of their own...either in conjunction with the fall festival or something separate.

We hope the next meeting agenda will include a visit from the Spartanburg librarian and a preview of Chris' ideas for brochures. We hope to be able to set some sort of tiered approach to the fundraising, so that we can figure out where to start going for money ... big and small.