Backers of new building in Forsyth might want to look next door

The library, which cost about $15 million to build, is open and bright inside, thanks to more than 1,700 windows.

It's easy to forget that there are hundreds of thousands of books in rows of shelving.

More than 1 million people passed through the library, which is on Church Street downtown, last year. Children explore books in their own section where the shelves are low and the colors are bright. Other patrons take breaks in the coffee shop by the entrance.

When Gayle Anderson, the president of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce, shows people around town, she makes it a point not to drive past the corner of Fifth and Spring streets.

She doesn't want anyone to see the drab Forsyth County Central Library. Built in 1952 with a 1980 addition, the library strikes many visitors as tired, dark and unappealing. Inside, it has problems with a leaky roof, a choppy layout and wiring that can't fully accommodate modern technology.

Anderson said that the library, which had about 400,000 visitors last year, is a vital issue for the city.

"People expect a community of our size to have a significant library that has impressive architecture and sends a message of being a forward-thinking community," Anderson said. "When we show people our downtown and they compare our library to other North Carolina communities, we look extremely deficient."

Many in Winston-Salem are saying what a consultant and county staffers have said in reports. It's time to take the idea of a new central library off the back burner.

Last week, commissioners took the first step toward that during a planning retreat. A majority of them appeared in favor of a 2010 bond referendum that would raise money toward a $32 million library.

But many challenges remain. The library still needs to find the community champions who will lead the effort. Then, officials will have to decide where to put the new library and figure out how to pay for it all.

In Greensboro, getting a new library took the efforts of a committed core of people, said Sandy Neerman, the library director. In Forsyth County's case, some say, the kinds of influential people who can most effectively lead the charge for a new library have yet to step forward.

"Everything I have seen that works in the local arena is because there is a champion," said Dudley Watts, the county manager. "It needs to be someone who is not an employee. There are obviously people who believe this is a worthwhile project."

How Greensboro did it

Greensboro's road to a new library was by no means without its bumps, Neerman said. Voters approved a $16 million library bond issue in 1990, but when the central library design was presented by the architects, it was over budget and not what people wanted, she said. So the plans were thrown out and a new beginning made -- this time, she said, with lots of public involvement. The staff also visited other libraries to see what worked.

The resulting library -- the one that opened in 1998 -- had lots of touches that came from public discussions. It had a coffee shop and area for art displays. Even the arrangement of the study tables was based on what patrons recommended.

"What we were hearing was that people wanted to look at their library as a destination place," she said.

The consultant that talked to Forsyth County library users found that they want a library that sounds a lot like Greensboro's. The community's "dream library," they said, should be a downtown centerpiece that is architecturally impressive and full of light. It should be open and inviting and have spaces for a variety of community activities.

And it should have a coffee shop.

A small, strong group

Neerman said that one key to Greensboro's success in building a library was the work of a "very strong small group" of people who were able to enlist the help of influential people in the community.

In Forsyth County, the Friends of Central Library are trying to be a catalyst for interest in a new library, but the group is new and has had to focus on getting organized.

Sharon Nelson, its president, said she has contacts with many people in the community who may be brought into the effort to promote getting a new library.

"What I would love to see happen is a task force formed that could include key people … to make this happen," Nelson said.

Yet Nelson and some of the Friends board members also said they see the library administration as too passive in trying to make its case.

"The library itself has to get on with its own mission and do advocacy and consciousness-raising as well as the Friends group," Nelson said. "I don't see staff members taking on that role, and I don't see how they can go further in their mission unless they do."

Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, the director of the library system, said that as county employees, she and others who work at the library can't be active in lobbying the county board of commissioners.

She believes that her administration has taken the most effective approach by commissioning the study that makes the case for a new library.

"We did the research," she said. "We had the study done. We presented the executive summary to the commissioners and that is our role. We have always let everyone know that we need a new library. We have been doing what we need to do."

That county commissioners have put library bonds high on their list shows that the administration's approach has been effective, she said. Members of the Friends group don't see everything that has gone on, she said.

"I am happy because things have started moving," Sprinkle-Hamlin said.

Donna Staley, the chairwoman of the library's board of trustees, said that although her board would have a role in promoting a new library, the work of many others is needed, too.

"Certainly you need a core group that is vocal and behind this, but at the same time, we have to have community support as a whole community," Staley said. "We would like for them to step forward and join the cause. Those who are experts in fundraising need to step forward."

Another perspective

Not everyone thinks that the support is there. Commissioner Gloria Whisenhunt said she has gotten some e-mail in support of the library but that "it has not been anything overwhelming."

"I have not seen the passion for it," she said. "We would have to see that the majority of the citizens truly wanted it, and I haven't seen that. I haven't been lobbied for it. I just don't see the community interest in it."

Whisenhunt said that the Greensboro library director is correct when she says that leading citizens need to be involved in a successful effort, but doesn't see that happening here.

Dave Plyler, the chairman of the county board, said that it's time to go beyond talk.

"We have discussed it and gotten all excited about it and then forgot about it," he said. "Somewhere down the road we have got to get an interested group of folks who want to make it happen. I know they are out there."

Some commissioners don't think there will be any problem at all getting people to support a new library. They include Beaufort Bailey, who has perhaps given the most public support to the idea, and Ted Kaplan, who has proposed voting on bonds for the library and a lot of other projects this year as a way of taking advantage of current low construction costs.

"I don't think you have to worry about enthusiasm for a new library," Kaplan said.

But supporters may find themselves tangled up over location.

The consultant's report clearly states that there's only one spot that will do -- right at the center of Winston-Salem, near the corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets, in the area of the proposed Downtown Civic Plaza.

But some county officials suggest looking for land in the Piedmont Triad Research Park. They also point to opportunities they see to go into partnerships with local universities, such as Wake Forest and Winston-Salem State, that could enhance the library and make it even better.

"You could build a larger library accessible to higher education," Plyler said. "If we could get the universities to participate, it could be the mother of all libraries."

Anderson argues for a downtown location.

"I think that downtown is everybody's living room and that is where you would really want it," she said.

■ Wesley Young can be reached at 727-7369 or at wyoung@wsjournal.com.