Glasgow City-County Library Purchases New Land

The Glasgow City-County Library is pleased to announce the recent purchase of property located behind the library building. The new land addition includes the gazebo, flower beds and other landscaping accents.

There are a number of reasons why the library has been interested in obtaining the land. Although we love our library building, we have outgrown the space for the collection, programs and services. The new property addition will allow for us to plan for many wonderful things for the future of the library and our community, “when the opportunity arose, we felt it was worth exploring. The potential for growth in so many areas is exciting,” said Library Trustee Janet Markle.

The property has been paid for by using interest earned from the Glasgow City-County Library Endowment. The Endowment was established in 1999 by donors Leonard and Kathyrn Langen, funded through the Charitable Remainder Unitrust. The purpose of the Endowment was to help the library grow. The interest earned on this generous gift has made purchasing the land possible today.

The task at hand is to plan for the future, and there are so many wonderful possibilities. In the short term, we plan to use the area for outdoor programs and activities, and landscape to further enhance the downtown area. Another major benefit to obtaining the land is that it will allow us to remove snow and improve drainage in the area north of the library to prevent seepage into the library basement.

Long-term plans include, but are not limited to, expanding the library building itself, creating a larger library that would include more room for our entire collection, displays, programs, and work areas. This would include things like updating and expanding the children’s area, creating a teen area, and expanding the reading room. We would like to have meeting and office areas for people to conduct business, and to have student proctoring spaces. Among other great things, expanding the library would also allow us to have a dedicated business area for patrons to manage work like make copies, print important documents, scan documents, and fax information. We are always interested to know if library users have any suggestions or input. If so, please let us know the next time you stop in the library.

The library staff and board of trustees will have a special opening celebration sometime in the late summer or early fall of 2023 to mark the official opening of the new property addition.

For further information please feel free to contact the library, stop in, or give us a call at 406-228-2731.

We appreciate the library staff and board in helping us make this dream a reality, and of course this couldn’t be made possible without the previous owner and Helland Agency with their assistance in the sale of the property.

We are excited to move forward in this beginning phase of planning for more opportunities through which the library can add to and extend services to our community.