Rockville Memorial Library, 21 Maryland Avenue, 3^rd Floor, Board Room, Rockville

As prepared

Susan Benton, CEO and President of the Urban Libraries Council, will present the 2016 Top Innovator Award to Mr. Leggett for the Library Refresh Program.

The Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) system developed a cyclical, cost-effective approach to “refresh” its branches.

Assesses and implements improvements to library construction and enhances information services and technologies based on changing community needs. The program aims to return the updated “refreshed” libraries to the community quickly.

Developed to in response to the County’s economic challenges, community concerns about the long downtime of renovations, and MCPL’s need to modernize its branches faster and maintain them open to the public.

Represents an approach to renovate libraries by avoiding the demolition of buildings, the long-term shutdowns of facilities and updating the infrastructure and technologies of the 21^st century libraries.

Preserves and refreshes library branches, enabling restoration of three branches per year and all 21 branches in seven years providing construction improvements with preventive measures, updated technology and programmatic changes to the interior library space.

Creative cost-effective approach to keep pace with anticipated changes due to the evolving role of public libraries, technology, and customer expectations, with the main objective of returning the “refreshed” library to its community in a timely manner.

First year well-received by the public and has cost-savings. Based on the first two completed projects – Twinbrook and Kensington Park branches, the estimate total cost to refresh all 16 libraries would be $20 million, in comparison to the $203 million to fully renovate the same 16 branches.

It would take 32 years to complete those projects – until approximately FY 2048, however under the Refresh Program, each branch can be refreshed 3 or 4 times by that year, providing the structural and technological updates that the community needs.

# # #