![]() There was no room on the shelf.”Ībout 16,000 people visit the Delta Township library every month and 32,000 people have library cards there. We had a wonderful collection because we had such limited shelving that we could only keep the newest stuff but we had no depth. She said the former space was cramped and uncomfortable. Hamrick’s office in the old library, once a principal’s office, was half the size of what the new one is. Hamrick was among a group of library officials who met with the architect to provide input into the design of the building. In 2006 voters approved a 1-mill operational tax, in perpetuity. When she got there library officials were already working toward a new building on property they already owned. She spent 13 years there before coming back to lead Delta’s library in 2003. “Everybody needs libraries.”īy the time she pursued a master’s degree in library science Hamrick had taken a position as the head librarian at the Haslett Library. “I’ve always thought libraries were wonderful places and important community centers, both for the have’s and the have not’s really,” she said. It evolved once Hamrick realized how much she loved the work. “I just always wanted to work in that building,” Hamrick said. The library, on Elizabeth Street, was housed in what was once the school’s 5,000 square foot gymnasium. She was as interested in the building as she was in the job. She was in her 30s before a part-time job as a page opened up at the former library building, a converted elementary school that she once attended classes in. Hamrick taught dance in Lansing for 20 years before she ever began shelving books in Delta Township’s library. “Anybody can go to a library but when you come here it’s an experience, aesthetically, and I think it shows this area how wonderful libraries can look.” Today, she’ll go to work there for the last time.īut even in retirement she’ll maintain a personal relationship with the library. She advocated for its construction and has led its 30-member staff since the day the front doors opened in June of 2008. The $7.2 million building is eight years old and Hamrick helped imagine it. “Then by the time it’s direct the sun’s higher so it doesn’t ever come straight in the windows.” “The morning sun is filtered so we get light but not direct light on the books,” she said, gesturing to the many windows at the top of the library. Its details - clean lines and natural light - still impress the long-time library director. Hamrick, 67, made daily visits to the 16-acre site on Davenport Drive during the library’s construction. Like the fact that every table has four electrical outlets. ![]() McLean Room in the corner, filled with over 600 books for, by and about women.īut there are things you can’t see that are worth mentioning too. Walking through the 30,000-square-foot building on the way to her office, she points out the fireplace that sets center stage among the bookshelves, a Motawi tile mural perched above it. Cherry Hamrick is at home in the Delta Township District Library.
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