Sophia Abernathy, a sixth grade student at Ashville Middle School, said she’s excited to see the library have so much more space and opportunity than it did before. Photo by Jamie Browder

The McCain Memorial Public Library in Ashville officially opened on Tuesday after moving to a new building. Library Director Paula Ballard pushed for the library to have room to grow at a new spot in town.

The library is now located at 35717 US Hwy 231 in Ashville. Books, dvds, audio books and board games for children and adults are available for checkout. Courtney Alexander is a part-time librarian alongside Ballard.

Formerly known as the Ashville Public Library, it existed in the same building since 1973. Due to structural issues, Ballard wanted to move the library to a building with more space. In between the old location and new, the library existed within the senior center for a short time.

“…we worked with some phenomenal architects- GNC out of Birmingham. It’s not really been hard; I’d just say it’s been long,” said Ballard.

Ballard has spent more than two years trying to get the library relocated. A bid for construction was accepted last April and it took a year to transition it into what it is now.

The architects asked Ballard specifically what she wanted, which were areas specifically dedicated to adults and kids. Because of the new space, the library now has conference and study rooms, a kids’ play area, a computer lab and an outside courtyard.

Ballard said she thinks the separation will allow adults to come in and work on resumes and other tasks while kids are allowed to play and enjoy their own area.

“It’s super exciting, we’ve had people come in today who haven’t been here before. We’re a small town so our goal was to be more visible

Ballard said she had apprehension about moving the library off of the downtown square because of foot traffic. However, none of the buildings were constructed to handle what the expanding library needed. The city already owned the building as the ideas came into reality.

“It just worked out really well because we could open it up how we wanted,” said Ballard. “Excited is an understatement, this is big for our community.”

Ballard has plans to continue building programs to bring all ages into the library. Before, resources and spaces only allowed her to do story times for kids, but now she hopes to begin activities for teens and adults.

“Now that we’re moved and settled, we’re going to start a calendar and offer some things that will definitely pull people in. They might walk in for that one thing, but then realize there’s a lot people don’t know about public libraries.”

Ballard will be celebrating her eighth anniversary with the library this summer. She said a lot of the inspiration for the move came from taking her own kids to other local libraries that had story time.

“When I started, we had slowed down on our circulation and so I just came in and said ‘I can do that here.’ So, we just came out of the gate trying some new things and have tried to build it up,” said Ballard.

Although she didn’t go to school to be a librarian, she’s found a lot of passion in helping people do every day things that will improve their lives.

“I’ve helped fill out a lot of job applications, anything I can do. I’m not just here to sit behind the desk and check out a book. It’s the small things.”

Ballard hopes by creating a helpful and kind environment, people can think “I need help, let me go ask Paula.”