CHRISTIANSBURG – Good literature is timeless, but buildings count the years.
This Saturday, Sept. 12, the Christiansburg branch of the Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library will celebrate its 40th anniversary in the Sheltman Street location from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Librarian Salina Sullivan and her staff welcome the public to join in the festivities.
The current location opened in 1986 and has been supported by the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, the Floyd County Supervisors, Virginia state grants, federal funding through the E-rate program and support from local citizens.
Sullivan, who oversees 13 local employees, works with Director Karim Khan, who has 12 employees in the library’s back section. Khan directs acquisitions for much of the system.
She says she is looking forward to the public coming out Saturday.
“We want our community, citizens of all ages, to come out, share memories, look at our collection of historic photographs and have fun,” she said. “We will have a silent auction, a bounce house for the children, the Little Critters Traveling Petting Zoo, concessions for purchase and live music featuring Virginia Hollow.” “Proceeds from our auction will benefit the Christiansburg Capital Campaign as we prepare for renovation of our present facility.”
The current location adjacent to the old Christiansburg High School and behind the Fire Department and Rescue Squad sites is not the only one that Cataloging Assistant Charles Underwood recalls.
“I was a little guy when my mother, Phyllis Underwood, first brought me to the library to get a library card. At that time the library was in a large white house across from the old Kroger Store on Main Street where the Dollar General is now,” he recalls.
“My first job – I was 15 – was at the ‘next’ library building up on the corner of Depot Street and Radford Road,” he added. “Judy Dickerson hired me as ‘page’ to reshelve books and straighten shelves after school and on weekends. After graduation, I held various jobs, including working as a columnist for the News Messenger, but decided to come back to the library and after working out front for a while as a library assistant, I took the cataloging position, and I help to record and identify works.”
Vicki Reedy and Rachel Altizer also work in the cataloging section.
Reedy is acquisitions manager, working with online DVDs, E-books, off-site services like the “Cloud” as well as audio books, and standard works. She has seen the library transition from the standard books, newspapers and magazines (the library maintains an extensive collection of all of them) to the modern edition.
“We are truly connected to the world now,” she says. “With our computer system, we can access available information anywhere. We also have a variety of movies for the public. If a patron wants a book in our system that may not be available here (Christiansburg) we can contact one of our sister library branches and have that item brought here for access or check out.”
“We have approximately 50,397 items at our location and including the branches at Blacksburg, Floyd – Jessie Peterman Memorial Library, Meadowbrook (Shawsville) and the bookmobile, the local library system has in excess of 200,000 items we can provide for our patrons,” said Sullivan.
The library has a conference room for public use and offers copying and printing services, a year-round selection of public instructional programs, book reviews and discussions, and more.
The renovation, due to begin soon, will enhance the capabilities of all current services and provide maintenance updates with increased space for public use.
