TPL Discusses Move To Saban Center, Main Branch Renovations

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa Public Library has an ambitious set of future plans to expand its footprint and services in the form of a three-prong approach that will carry a $31.5 million price tag.

The proposed funding package, which was approved by library trustees last week, would finance the library moving its children's services over to the Saban Center, while also undertaking renovations to build out more adult services at the TPL Main Branch on Jack Warner Parkway. The latter initiative would include a focus on adult literacy and workforce development offerings by TPL.

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TPL Board of Trustees member Bryan Winter made the presentation on Wednesday, which came following recommendations by Indiana-based consulting firm ReThinking Libraries, LLC — the firm hired by TPL earlier this year to conduct the research for the project. The talks go back to March, when TPL officials met with commissioners and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox about the possibility of moving the Tuscaloosa Public Library to the Saban Center, which will be located in the Tuscaloosa News building.

"We can do a lot more and a lot better for our community if we make some significant changes," he said. "What we asked these consultants to do is to help us design a library of the future ... Where we will be in 10 years, 20 years, 30 years."

BY THE NUMBERS

• $2.5 million: Plan to expand library services to outlying areas of the county through additional mobile libraries and mobile maker stations. Winter pointed out that this would be made possible due to each school in the Tuscaloosa County School System having public WiFi access in their parking lots. This would come with annual operational increase of $450,000 - $900,000.
• $20 million: The estimated cost to move TPL's youth services library to the Saban Center, where it will operate in the same location as Children's Hands-on Museum and Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre. Annual operational increases are estimated to be $700,000-$900,000.
• $9 million: The cost to revamp TPL's Main Branch to become an adult services library with maker stations, programs promoting literacy and workforce development. Annual operational increases for the Main Branch would then be expected to come out to to $700,000-$900,000.
• $19 per capita: The amount currently spent by the library per citizen. Its current request is to see its funding increase to raise that number to $25 per capita, which is still lower than other comparable cities, according to library officials.

Part of the upgrades to its youth services would also include the incorporation of a Library of Things for those with special needs. This would consist of a collection of equipment, tools and resources that can be reserved and checked out.

"We have more special needs kids and autistic kids in our community than any of us could ever imagine," Winter said. "They need to have different stimuli and tools, but unfortunately many of their parent can't afford these specialized things the kids would benefit from."

Apart from the large-scale commitment, though, Winter also pointed out that the library would not be asking for an increase in its annual funding.

"What we're asking for from the county commission is to go back to our pre-COVID funding levels and basically this will bring us back to where we were in 2020," he said. "We're not asking for anything more ... the funding overall for the library has gone down over the last 10 years so we have not been keeping up with inflation across the board."

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