A new home to thousands of books in the area is undergoing interior construction as it nears its grand opening. Nestled in North Mount Pleasant, Charleston County Public Library (CCPL) will open its new Wando Mount Pleasant library branch in May 2019.
“I brag to everybody and tell them that I have the coolest job ever. I get to open new libraries. It’s so wonderful for our community,” shared Toni Pattison, CCPL project manager. “We’re one of the last places where people can come and everything is free. They can hangout for an hour, they can just come in and grab a book or DVD or they can come and hangout all day with us. There is just so much to offer. I just love to see the different ways that people use their libraries and to be able to expand the services to more people is great.”
The Wando Mount Pleasant library will be located right next to Wando High School off of Carolina Park Boulevard. The new 40,000 square-foot facility is being built to adapt to the growing Mount Pleasant population. Pattison shared that the Mount Pleasant Regional Library Branch and other smaller branches in the area stay very busy.
“We definitely needed a larger facility out there. As the population keeps growing out in that direction, we figured that the Carolina Park area will probably be somewhat central in the next few years,” Pattison said.
Due to rain and weather delays, the branch will open a few months later than originally planned. But, once the doors spring open, the new branch will offer many new features to the community, completely free of charge.
The branch will have an auditorium with a capacity of 250 people, that has the capability of being divided into two meeting rooms. There will be four smaller conference rooms that can hold 20-25 people for quiet meetings. There are going to be several makerspace rooms for do-it-yourself projects that are meant to get dirty. Pattison explains that if a Girl Scout group comes in and wants to use glitter, the rooms are designed so they can be cleaned up easily after any type of craft project.
There will also be a digital media studio with a green screen wall for video recording or photography use. Across from the studio there will be several suites for editing, with top notch editing software. Other features at the branch include several group study rooms, a quiet area and adult, children and teen areas.
All new CCPL branches being built will offer usable outdoor space for the public. CCPL has been calling this area the backyard as it will offer patio seating, and WiFi will be accessible outside. This branch will offer two separate patio spaces, one for children and one for adults.
“On really nice spring days, you’re welcome to take a book out there and relax, use your laptop or whatever. Our existing facilities don’t have that but we’re trying to incorporate it in all of the new ones,” Pattison added.
Pattison complimented the design team working on the new Wando Mount Pleasant branch. She shared that the interior design team wanted to incorporate light and nature to the children’s space as much as possible. They have designed three huge skylights that run through the center of the children’s area.
“Obviously, the children’s area in a library is an opportunity to do something whimsical and really fun. You want it to be really bright and a cool place for kids to hang out,” Pattison shared. “The skylights create a lovely light in the kid’s area. It’s a fun take on a nice, functional skylight.”
Reprinted from the Moultrie News - Written by Cecilia Brown - November 26, 2018