The original Hattiesburg Library was state of the art--back in 1930. By 1988, when Head Librarian Pamela Pridgen took over, the burgeoning community of 48,000 had long outgrown its building and collections. To secure a Bond Issue in Missisippi requires 61% of the vote: a near impossibility as demonstrated by two failed previous attempts. Pridgen was determined that the third vote would be the charm, and to this end, employed a sophisticated yet simple series of strategies for educating and involving her community.

Advocacy Goals

Bond Resolution: Beginning in 1989, Pridgen and team began work toward passage of a Bond Issue that would fund a re-designed and re-built library.

Community Ownership: While residents of the community were clearly favorably inclined toward the library, informal discussion revealed that most were not aware of how much more a re-configured library could provide the community. To this end, Pridgen launched a process that would result in both support for, and ownership of, the library that resulted.

Activities

Public Information: Before even beginning the process, Pridgen approached the Library Commission for a $10,000 Public Information grant to allow her and her team to educate the community on the need for a new library. The grant was used for press and meetings: radio, TV, newspaper coverage, and to design and administer a 400-household telephone survey of the community, in partnership with the University of Southern Mississippi. The survey was designed to inform as well as elicit the community's views on what the design and functions of a new library would be.

Community Engagement: From the moment they embarked on the project, the library team used every opportunity to involve and engage the community.

• Once the survey was complete, they held a series of Town Hall Meetings to introduce the trustees and staff, to discuss the results and to answer questions. Meetings were held at different locations and at different times of the day to ensure that the maximum number of people could attend.
• They then initiated a speakers bureau, a group of people who were 'scripted' to speak at any and every available occasion and to answer the questions that arose.
• Finally, a series of neighborhood coffees were hosted by Friends of the Library for 10-20 of their neighbors and friends. As the Bond Issue neared, Special Events such as a luncheon with author Richard Ford and an Evening with John Grisham focused on the importance of libraries to a community's health and well-being.

The Library of Hattiesburg, Petal and Forest County, Mississippi.

Obstacles

There were nay-sayers, who predicted that the third attempt at the Bond Issue would fail again.

Results

The 1990 Bond Resolution passed overwhelmingly: with 72% of the vote countywide, and 88%-98% in the city wards. In 1996, the new library was completed.

Unexpected Benefits

The community rallied to the library's support in unexpected ways. Having been intellectually as well as emotionally engaged in the design process, the community's outpourings of donations for art and other design features resulted in a building that truly has pieces of the community and its past within. Hattiesburg lies at the junction of two rivers and was a bustling lumber town for much of its history. The library received a donation of virgin pine, dredged up from the riverbed where it had rested since the 1870s, for use in its dedicated Mississippi Room, and marble from the Hattiesburg Hotel, as well as antique glass for its arched windows. The community also donated $250,000 for a commissioned mural of Hattiesburg historical roots as lumber town, by an artist who had studied with Diego Rivera.

Tips for Others:

• Engaging the community in envisioning what a library can be is the first important step in building ongoing participation in the process. Working from the 'nostalgic vision' of libraries that most of us have, to an appreciation of what a library can be, is the key to building support and investment.

• Using the media and other public information tools to build a drum-beat of possibility and engagement is a great way to set the stage and move the process forward.

• Patience and persistence, and acknowledgement that true community involvement is not created overnight, is also essential.

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