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Biloxi-Gulfport-Pascagoula, Miss., Sunday, June 27, 1976
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trustees voted to dedicate the library’s 25,000 volumes valued at approximately $50,000 to the county in exchange for a millage levy.
The property at Ulman Avenue and U. S. 90 was purchased, but in 1968, a bond issue which-would have financed construction of the new building was defeated. i-In 1969, still larger quarters were rented in a converted service station at Ulman and Dunbar Avenues and the operation moved there just months before Hurricane Camille.
See New, A-8
The neutral carpet of a quality that promises durability and easy maintenance, is one that will be non-distracting to library users. It is contrasted with a slate floor in the entrance lobby.
Furnishings, in a warm wood grain accented by brightly colored upholstery, were chosen for utilitarian purposes and to coordinate with the decor. Shelves and other furnish- i ings in the children's room are especially sized for youngsters.
It is doubtful that Miss Louise Crawford, presid- j ing over her sparse set up back in the Thirties, ever dreamed that 40 years . later, the library would be a sophisticated operation, funded by the county and two cities, with a $300,000 facility offering many one-of-a-kind advantages.
The board of supervisors and the city of Bay St. Louis each levy one mill for the library's operating expenses, and the city of Waveland, where a perma- 1 nent branch was estab- ! lished in 1969 on a two-day a week basis, contributes a half mill. (On July 3, the Waveland branch will increase its operation to an additional half day each week when it moves out of upstairs quarters at city hall into recently renovated space at the city’s new civic center.)
Its irregular shape, for instance, was virtually dictated by the five-sided plot on which it is situated. The lot has no parallel sides and Wagner said the "logical rectangle" would have touched the property boundaries on all sides.
“The point of the sawtooth and odd projecting shapes was to better utilize the piece of property,” he ' said.
Constructed of concrete block with stucco exterior, the building is one on which Wagner hesitates to hang a style label.
“Contemporary probably comes closest,” he said. "The building says it was built in 1975-76."
Different colored walls, both in the main reading room and in the children's , room on the east side, are a striking feature of the library's interior. Each of ! the walls is a different hue, chosen deliberately to "add a feeling of delight and diversity" in an otherwise necessarily subdued area. Wagner said. The colors also add an identifi-cation advantage. A li- J brarian who can't leave the charge desk can easily , direct an unfamiliar pa- ^ tron to shelves "over near 'a the purple wall,” Wagner j said.	^
Lighting fixtures selected to provide high in- ; tensity illumination 4 without glare are ar-J ranged for economical 1 operation and can be con-jj trolled in a number of dif- J ferent patterns, the architect said, eliminating the necessity of using all of them simultaneously.


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