CARLISLE, Iowa — The city of Carlisle has broken ground on a new $7 million library that will provide more space and learning opportunities for those who use library resources.

The construction comes after nearly 10 years of planning and fundraising efforts. The hard work paid off as ground was broken two weeks ago at the new location. The library is currently located just north of the Carlisle High School football field. The new library will be located on the south side of town near the community pool.

Construction efforts include using an existing recreation building. The building will be gutted, then re-finished as part of the new library.

The building that the current library is in has around 3,600 square feet; the new building will have nearly triple the square footage at around 10,000.

“We’ll have a lot more space to be able to spread out,” said Carlisle Public Library Director Stacy Goodhue. “We have a lot of great programming that we do, but we have to do it either offsite or close the library, so we’ll be able to offer more programming in a better space that’ll be better for the community and for what we do here.”

Goodhue said that with library funding being cut at both the state and federal levels, it has been a struggle at times. However, she said that community support and fundraising efforts have been tremendous.

“Libraries are being affected a lot by cuts at the federal level and the state level,” Goodhue said. “We have been able to be very well supported by our city. Not having to raise taxes for the new library is a huge, a huge thing. So we do go out and we try to get as many grants as we can, fundraising from organizations, and we have a Friends of the Library group and they raise money for us.”

Construction on the new library is expected to be completed in roughly one year.

For more information about the Carlisle Public Library and its upcoming events, click here.