The public is invited to attend the Groundbreaking Ceremony this Monday (June 30), at 9 a.m., at the site of the new Cooper Memorial Library at Lake-Sumter Community College’s South Lake Campus. The facility is a partnership project of LSCC, the Lake County Board of County Commissioners, the Friends of the Cooper Memorial Library and the University of Central Florida.
The new building will keep the name of the Cooper Memorial Library, in commemoration of the area’s first facility. Organized in 1906, the Clermont library dropped its 50-cents-per-family fee and become public in 1911. Its book collection moved to three different locations before Alice Cooper, president of the library board, offered to lease a building site. The 720 square foot structure, completed in 1914, was named after the Cooper family when it donated the land to the board in 1938. Sixty-six years later, the library needed more space, so it changed its address in 1980, and again in 2005.
The new 50,000 square foot facility, featuring wireless computer access, should serve the community and th two schools for years to come. LSCC and UCF students will not only benefit from the start-of-the-art reference and resource addition to the campus’ two current buildings, but also a bookstore, restaurant, three general and two computer classrooms, and a number of small and large group-study rooms with technology for practicing presentations. The community will enjoy full library services, including general access to computers, a 6,000 square foot children’s section and a separate area for teenagers.
