Lee-Whedon director tells county legislators that library ‘not just a warehouse for books’

Photo by Tom Rivers: Lee-Whedon Memorial Library Director Kristine Mostyn last week updated Orleans County legislators on an expansion to the Medina library that will add meeting rooms and a “maker space” will be a separate room for some of the programs. County Legislator Bill Eick is in back.

ALBION – The libraries in Orleans Conty are seeking $1 per person in funding from the Conty Legislature. That has been the request in recent years, but the Legislature has kept libraries at $10,087 since 2011.

The four public libraries in Albion, Holley, Lyndonville and Medina are collectively seeking $40,343. The county’s population was 40,343 in the 2020 Census.

One of the library directors, Kristine Mostyn of Lee-Whedon Memorial Library in Medina, told legislators that libraries have changed to meet the needs of the community, offering more online service, meeting spaces and programs.

“We’re not just a warehouse for books,” she said.

Lee-Whedon has just started a $5 million construction project that will put a 4,785-square-foot addition on the back of the current library, which is 11,100 square feet.

The addition will create space for two meeting rooms, two tutoring rooms, a programming room with makerspace, Friends of the Library book sale room, a quiet research room, a teen room and 14 parking spots.

There would also be additional restrooms, a new circulation desk, a new entry portico with automatic sliding doors, about a 10 percent increase in the collection and upgraded technology.

Mostyn said the initial projections on the local tax impact have lessened after Lee-Whedon secured grants and raised $360,000 in donations from the community. Lee-Whedon has set a $500,000 fund-raising goal on the capital campaign.

Library leaders from the other libraries are expected to make a presentation next month to the Legislature, seeking for a funding boost.

The county was giving $29,914 to be shared among the four libraries as recently as 2002, but that dropped to $7,480 in 2003. Since then, the amount was raised to $12,587 in 2007, $13,617 in 2010, and then was cut to $10,087 in 2011. It hasn’t changed since then.