The Goffstown Public Library belongs to the community and that has been our focus for over 100 years. The information presented on this page is meant to continue our commitment to the residents of Goffstown and to remain transparent and accepting of feedback.

GPL-3rd-floor Concept Plans
2020-1017 GPL concept images 1
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2020-1017 GPL concept plans 1
GPL-1st-floor Concept Plans
GPL-2nd-floor Concept Plans
GPL-3rd-floor Concept Plans

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Information

Specs and Plans

The presented designs for an addition to the Library building are preliminary, with many public forums being planned over the next year to present information and gather feedback from the community. All feedback will be considered and incorporated as best as possible while keeping the library’s functionality and the Trustees’ financial responsibilities in mind.

Project background information:

  • The Goffstown Public Library, as of October 2022, is 113 years old and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  • In 1910, the US Census listed the population of Goffstown at 2,579 people. As of 2022, Goffstown’s population is estimated at around 18,500 people.
  • The only expansion to date was the addition of the elevator and emergency stairwell in 1997/1998. During this renovation, the former third floor attic was made usable. This project made the building more accessible and changed the layout of the interior.
  • 2018 Community Survey – www.goffstownlibrary.com/2018survey
  • McFarland Johnson and SMP Architecture worked with the Library Board of Trustees in 2019 and 2020 on pre-construction engineering, feasibility of adding to the existing building, and the preliminary interior and exterior concept designs.
  • The new expansion and renovation is scheduled to be finished in 2025, if the 2023 warrant article passes.
  • Bauen Construction was hired in 2021 as the project construction manager to give us the most reliable costs for the project.
  • Strong Resource Group was hired in 2021 to provide the Goffstown Public Library Foundation with a feasibility study to inform them about a capital campaign. They are now under contract to assist with the campaign.
  • The Goffstown Public Library Foundation, formed in 2021, is tasked with grant applications and capital campaign for the building project and is a 501(c)3.
  • The library has two sources of money: municipal budget (taxpayer money) and bequests and donations (private money) under the management and control of the Library Board of Trustees. To date, only private money had been used for the expansion project.

Past timeline and spending for this project:

  • 2009 Purchase of the grass lot and upper parking lot adjacent to the current parking lot through Trustee funds (private money): $272,000
  • 2018 Community Survey about the library expansion that informed our design of the addition.
  • 2019 Feasibility study was approved by the taxpayers: $80,000 of Trustee unrestricted funds (private money).
  • 2021 Library Renovation and Expansion, Preconstruction, approved by the taxpayers: $95,000 of Trustee unrestricted funds (private money).

To submit questions and comments about our ongoing planning for an addition to the GPL, email the Library Board of Trustees at trustees@goffstownlibrary.com or attend one of their meetings.

All meetings of the Library Board of Trustees are open to the public, as required by law. For more information, please call or email Dianne Hathaway, Library Director, at 603-497-2102 or dianneh@goffstownlibrary.com. Meetings are held on the first and third Wednesday of each month at 6:30 PM, on the third floor of the library. The up-to-date calendar of events and meetings is available at www.goffstownlibrary.com/calendar. Please join us!

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Please speak with your friends and neighbors about supporting the building addition through your votes. In order for the warrant article to pass for construction, we will need 60% approval.
  • The GPL Foundation will be engaging in a capital campaign with a variety of gift levels. Please consider any gift amount to help us make our addition a reality.

This project will be funded by a combination of money raised by the town, money raised through a capital campaign and may include money from grants or other avenues available. A charitable foundation has been created to oversee a capital campaign, and a professional fundraiser will be hired to help develop a realistic goal for that campaign.

  • Public libraries are not outdated, and they are evolving constantly and over hundreds of years. During the COVID pandemic, librarians reinvented themselves with new services, expanded digital resources, and creative online programming. Public libraries will be around well into the future, in some form or another.
  • YTD, through August 2022, we have welcomed a total of 25,785 visitors into the library. That is 3,223 visitors per month; 806 visitors per week.
  • Yes, people still read books in many different formats: traditional, physical books; audio books, both on CD and digital; graphic books, and more.
  • YTD, through August 2022, 73,970 materials have been checked out of the GPL.

This project would add much-needed parking to the village area. It would create a new entrance that is fully accessible. It adds four accessible restrooms, two on each of the floors open to the public, to the one restroom that the building currently has open to the public for a total of five restrooms. The addition will feature a community room that can host up to 100 people, is dividable allowing for two concurrent meetings, and is accessible after library hours for community meetings. The project adds to the total space available for our collection of materials and adds another meeting space on the second floor for added programming. The current offerings of the Library are limited by the size of the building. Our town survey indicated that the community was looking for comfortable places to read and work. This project adds space for study rooms and multiple comfortable seating areas. This project allows the Library to better serve the needs of our community and for better functionality now and into the future.

  • The GPL is on a 2,575 footprint.
  • Currently about 7,047 gross square feet—not all usable space.
  • Proposed addition is 10,805 square feet; that includes a partial basement.
  • Total will be 17,851 square feet when complete.

The normal, non-pandemic, number of staff members employed by the Library is 12, with the proposed layout and changes we expect to be able to fully staff the Library without a change in that number. That is our goal.

There is no space in the current building to add a fully accessible restroom, without making major changes to the interior of the beautiful historic building and the shape and layout of the current entryway makes widening the doorway challenging. Just addressing accessibility also ignores the issues of parking, comfortable places to work, and the limits the building places on our collection and programming.

The challenge in answering this question is deciding how to judge that. We are currently conducting community forums to garner support for the project and allow for input from the community. We can look at how the town voted on our last warrant article and how they vote on the warrant article on the March 2021 ballot, but the Library Board has yet to ask the community to use tax dollars to fund the preliminary stages of this project. We are doing our best to make people aware of the project and to give them many opportunities to ask questions and let us know what they think. If you have questions about the project or feedback on the design, you can email the Library Trustees at trustees@goffstownlibrary.com.

For more information about donations and fundraising for the addition, please visit https://www.gplnhfoundation.org