Brentwood Library's Reading Room To Be The Friends Gathering Room

Brentwood TN

14 April, 2022

2:03 PM

Description

Press release from the City of Brentwood: April 12, 2022 Brentwood City Commissioners, at its regular Monday, April 11 meeting, approved a resolution to rename a highly popular community room at the John P. Holt Brentwood Library. The "Friends Gathering Room" as it will now be called, is a place for all patrons to meet, collaborate, and enjoy. This space, located adjacent to the main lobby, will be home to alternative collection items to take home including art, puzzles, and games, and will be a flexible space for Library programming and events. Since 1976, the Friends of the Brentwood Library (the Friends) have partnered with the City of Brentwood to provide enhanced services and programming for the patrons of the John P. Holt Brentwood Library. Each year, the Friends and their 460+ members raise and donate funds to cover a majority of adult, teen, and children's programming and much of the special technology upgrades, equipment, and staff development. Friends President Kathy Dooley-Smith states "We are so appreciative that the Board of Commissioners recognizes the long history of contributions of the Friends. As the room evolves over the next few months, we look forward to all patrons enjoying the Friends Gathering Room and its new features. This renovation is just one more way that the John P. Holt Brentwood Library is better with Friends!" In April of 2021, the Friends donated $30,000 to replace the moving wall in the frequently used meeting rooms and $25,000 for a comprehensive space plan to re-imagine the library spaces. In addition to capital projects, they also complete a plethora of smaller projects each year, including new stories for the StoryWalk, monthly art gallery and showcase, book club sets, and volunteer recognition. They also fund alternative circulating items such as art, telescopes, ukuleles, binoculars, chess sets, mah jongg sets, and more. Over its 45-year history, they have donated over $1.5 million to the library. Just this past weekend, at the spring FOBL Book Sale, they raised $15,152. This money will go directly back into the library for staff and patrons. The next sale will be July 8 - 10, and you can follow their online presence on their Facebook page. This press release was produced by the City of Brentwood. The views expressed here are the author's own.