With a grant from the Oregon State Library, Sherman County in 1996 became the last county in Oregon to develop a public library. For the prior decade, the public library and its patrons shared space with the library collection and students of Sherman Junior Senior High School in the county seat of Moro. It was a crowded space (less than 2,000 square feet), with limited seating, no rooms for private meetings or study, and limited computer access. Realizing that this conjoined situation was less than optimal, the Sherman County Public/School Library Board embarked on a campaign to design, fund, and build a new library satellite to the existing school buildings on school property.
Results
- The Sherman County School District and other partners built a new, separate 7,000 square foot building for the Sherman County Library to serve the 1800 residents in the community. The collaborative approach with public, private, and civic partners helped the community to gain funding and other resources needed for the new library while leveraging the state of Oregon Housing and Community Services Community Incentive Fund.