Vote to expand the Shelter Island Library

For more than a year, Shelter Island Library Director Terry Lucas has been visiting with local groups and individuals and holding numerous information sessions to familiarize the public with a $9.5 million expansion plan to meet immediate and long-term needs.

Ms. Lucas has listened to suggestions from the public and worked with architects and contractors to incorporate many ideas.

You need only visit today’s library, a place of bustling activity, overflowing much of the time with children, teens and adults engaged in varied activities to understand why the many programs and services offered can’t continue in the existing space and meet current community needs.

The library of today is far different from the one that existed years ago when a library was simply a place to borrow books, magazines and newspapers and in later years, audio and visual content. Today’s library is a true community center, encompassing many programs of its own, services that never were offered at libraries — think vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic and administration of flu inoculations and handling applications for passports.

Add to that many informative discussions with experts at Friday Night Dialogues, shared programs with town departments and specialized programs to meet a variety of interests and interaction with other Suffolk County libraries, and you have a rich trove of activities.

The library staff brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to coordinating programs and rendering assistance to the community.

All of this is supported with a relatively low budget, partially funded by contributions, including the generosity of Friends of the Library. There is already more than $300,000 pledged for the building project if the referendum succeeds.

The 30-year bond to finance the project if there are no grants or additional contributions is relatively low.

We live in a time where once rock-solid institutions are examined closely and often assailed for being out-of-touch, incompetent or worse. There are cranks and misanthropes who will always lead the charge against everything and anything, especially established community pillars. But by and large, it’s a time-honored civic duty to respectfully question the purpose and performance of institutions.

One treasured institution on Shelter Island can withstand all questions and come out shining. The library here is much more than a collection of books, but serves its real purpose as being a haven for the arts, an information clearing house, a forum for political ideas and debate, everything in fact that lives up to Socrates’ definition of a library — a delivery room for ideas.

For all this institution contributes to the community, we encourage support of the library referendum. All Shelter Island voters are eligible to  vote on Saturday, June 17, from 10 a.m. to 4. p.m., in the library’s Community Room.