While Republic has had library services through the Springfield-Greene County Library since the 1960s, they had yet to have a space as large or with as many features as the current location.
Previous locations "were mainly ‘storefront libraries,’ so they were just in shopping center[s] throughout the community. Every time they moved, they would go to a different, bigger storefront. So we sort of grew with the community,” said Tysha Shay, Republic Library branch manager.
Shay has been working with the Springfield-Greene County Library for over 20 years and became the Republic Branch Manager in early 2020. Prior to this, she had worked for the Las Vegas County Library.
Shay said that the previous location was situated in the green space near the current campus and had been operational from 2009 until it was torn down to create the new space this year.
The new location is over twice the size of the old location, measuring up to just over 22,000 square feet.
“I hope that the community feels like we use the expansion and the space in the right way,” said Shay.
“The library is one of the last places that offers free access to everyone. The library is for everyone. It belongs to [the public] essentially and that's what we are here to do the things we do.”
Among the many features of the new location include a youth services space, meeting spaces of various sizes and a maker space.
“Republic has a large demographic of families and kid[s] with multiple age kids. So we knew that we needed a really good youth services department. So that was probably like the top priority for this project,” she added.
Shay said that the new library also helped solve the issue of a lack of meeting spaces in the Republic Area.
“There [weren’t many] free public meeting spaces or places that you could really pay for events as well,” said Shay. “There’s a wedding venue and there are two other restaurants that, when they're closed, help the community out and like offer their spaces.”
She explained that the Republic Branch hopes to fill this gap with its meeting rooms, which vary in sizes. Shay said that among these rooms include a 150-person auditorium and study-room style areas.
Additionally, the new branch has brought a Maker Space to the Republic area.
Modeled after the Maker Space at the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library in Springfield, Republic’s Maker Space includes devices such as 3D printers to help provide the community with tools for hobbyists, artists, students and more.
“It's giving people not only in Republic, but also in western Greene County, access to those sorts of things that they probably didn't want to drive all the way into Springfield,” she added.
Shay said that the experience of planning and building the new branch was a positive one.
“All the teams that we worked with, Paragon Architecture, Nabholz Construction, they did a phenomenal job of designing and building this building and really listened to our feedback of what we needed and really worked in partnership with us. It was really awesome.”
The Republic Branch Library is located at 921 N. Lindsey Ave, off of Highway 174.
For more information on the library and its programming, visit the Springfield-Greene County Library website, Instagram or Facebook pages.