Size Limitation
The current Sanger Public Library building opened in 1995 and is just over 5,000 square feet in total size, including the meeting room, restrooms, foyer, staff work areas, and storage closets.
Per statistics from the Texas State Library, Sanger Public Library is only half the average size of libraries in towns of similar populations.
Our current size limitation means that as Sanger continues to grow, we are unable to continue growing our collection, services, and program offerings to meet the needs of the growing community.
Increase in Participation
We have seen a tremendous increase in new library cards. This summer (2017) from May through July, we created 60% more new cards than we did over the same time period in 2016. In fact, we issued more than 100 new cards in the month of June 2017 alone!
Along with an increase in new cards, we have seen continual increases in program attendance. Over the summer we had record program and event attendance - up 12% over 2016. Several events were near, or over 100 people in attendance. With our current facilities, it is difficult to accommodate current attendance levels (our meeting room is under 500 square feet), and we are limited by our space in growing our programming along with the community.
Notable Statements
Some common things we hear because of our small size:
I never knew this was a library building.
- Current exterior design and small size don't attract attention or make it easy to identify the library.Wow, there's more here than I thought there'd be!
- Our small size can give the impression that we don't have a good library, or wouldn't have the size or variety in our collection that we really do.
