The Challenge: The Yancey County Public Library faces its greatest challenge and its most exciting opportunity since the Woman's Club of Burnsville start it as a community service during the Great Depression.

Years later, we are literally bursting at the seams. The library's 30,000 volumes and 12 public-access computer workstations are squeezed into less than 5,000 square feet of an aging building that has reached its limits and then some. The present structure simply cannot hold the weight of any more books. There is no room to install an elevator to get to the upper floors. Only one computer is accessible to the physically impaired. Parking is limited, and handicapped spaces are nonexistent.

Yet, our needs are growing. The library currently serves many patrons who visited the library more than 25,000 times last year. We need a better place.

The Opportunity: Yancey County has donated the YCI building and land for our new library.

Funds are still needed to renovate, finish and furnish the facility to meet the needs of all the people it will serve. There will be more space for books and periodicals, a larger children's area, more computers, more room for studying and tutoring, a community meeting room, a permanent display area for regional art... and room to grow. In the 1930s the library's founders donated books from there own collections and gave silver teas to raise funds. Now its our turn. Please help.

A Rich Legacy: The Yancey Collegiate Institute (YCI) building is a dream come true. It's historic, an architectual treasure and structually sound. Already home to the community-built "Kid Mountain" children's playground, the YCI building is conveniently located across the street from the Parkway Playhouse on Green Mountain Drive. It will make a first-rate library.

Founded in 1901 by the Yancey Baptist Association, YCI provided primary, intermediate, high school, vocational and college level classes for some 5,000 students. The school was one of the first to the study of newspapers and periodicals. As high as 80% of its graduates attended colleges and universities.

Yancey County assumed ownership in 1926 and used the YCI building as a public school for the next 65 years. Today, the building is on the National Register of Historic Places. This will be the new Yancey County Public Library.

Fact: The new library will be fully accessible to all patrons, both able-bodied and those who are physically impaired. Visitors can take advantage of the Yancey County Transportation Authority (YCTA) vans for the two-minute ride from the Burnsville town square.

How to make a donation:

Yancey County Public Library Fundraising Facts: