BIG ACCESS PROBLEM OR BEAT THE BUSHES!!!                       by Dr. William Taber NYSALB trustee                             "That old library building is a beautiful little gem. They really knew how to build things back then." Although such words bring a surge of pride to local residents, they also may signify a pretty big pain to the library board when the beautiful design and solid construction practices of a century ago conflict with today's legal and social standards regarding disabled access. The store front or ground level construction of modern design may lack aesthetic appeal to some eyes, but it is far more in step with these standards. The library building in our little village does not know where the ground is. One of its two floors is in a basement below ground level, and the other soars high, reachable only by a double set of steep stairs through a relatively narrow entrance flanked by a wide curtain of solid rock. Visually impressive, historically valuable, and as impenetrable as a fortress. Perhaps this sounds familiar to you? Read on. Our access project is now near completion. It requires a new entrance into a side of the building, a new room and roof, a three level elevator, a redesigned bathroom.... AND SEVERAL YEARS OF BEATING THE BUSHES. The first bushes to beat are those in which architects hide. You must find an architect whose professional focus is consistent with the aims and particularly the resources of your library. This took us over two years. Apparently architects are quite diverse in their perspectives; so don`t marry one until you are entirely comfortable with his/her proposals. The first proposal was one that we could have paid for if we had closed the library and laid off the staff for 4 1/2 years; then we would reopen with proper access! The shock of that cost figure resulted in trustee catalepsy for quite a while. Eventually the bush beating started, and finally a newspaper clipping led us to an architect who figured out a solution at approximately 1/4th of the cost of the initial proposal. That was still more than a year's full budget, but it was a vital move in the right direction. The next bush is where the money lives. I became the beater for grants despite my lack of experience in grant writing. The collections of grant manuals in the bigger libraries were a great help. From the beginning of the money search to the actual awarding of grants, 1 1/2 years more were consumed before we won Federal and State funds for 2/3 of the project costs. With that money in place, the village was able to pick up the remainder of the bill. Even then there were anxious moments. The first three bids by construction companies came in far above our resources. The last two met our goals. This is certainly not the story of a speedy or efficient process --- but it is one of hope. Our only asset was the willingness to constantly hunt for unknown options (and all options were unknown at first). Its ingredients were persistence, a growing skeptical awareness that professional estimates are guesses, and a hunter's faith that something good would eventually occur if we kept at it. Good fortune (always necessary!) was indeed somewhere in those bushes, and the biggest break for us was the first --cut the overall cost -- which then made the later successes possible.                      NYSALB TRUSTEE Essays For Library Trustees & Others