Library Trustees sign off on moving RELIC program to Central

As both Manassas and Manassas Park talk about exiting the Prince William County Public Library System, changes are coming to the library residents of these cities use most.

Central Library, located at 8601 Mathis Avenue in Manassas, will close Jan. 15, 2020 for renovations. When it reopens in June, it will be the home to the Ruth E. Loyd Information Center (RELIC), a center devoted to genealogy and Prince William County history.

RELIC will move from the nearby Bull Run Library on Ashton Avenue to Central, where a reading room named for Loyd — who, in 1952, pushed for further development in Virginia’s public library systems.

“I will be losing some positions with the change at Central, and it’s kind of a win-win because it strengthens Central in its new format…” Prince William County Public Library Director Deborah Wright told the county’s Library Trustee Board at its December 5 meeting.

RELIC will take up about 3,000 square feet in the 22,000-square-foot Central Library. There was some surprise among the Trustee Board that Central had adequate space enough to accommodate the research center.

The rear of the Central Library will be used for additional storage space, which is needed within the system, as new libraries, like the one in Montclair that opened in 2015, were built without enough adequate storage space, Wright told the Trustees.

The Trustees were asked to vote on the temporary closure of Central, and they passed the resolution unanimously. However, the Prince William County Government posted a press release to its website on Monday, Nov. 18 outlining the closure and planned renovations before the Trustees voted on the measure.

A new makerspace is likely to replace RELIC at Bull Run Libary. Traditionally, these collaborative spaces allow people to use high-tech tools like 3-D printers, or no-tech tools like soldering irons to creating objects or products.

Central Library is the closest to Manassas and Manassas Park and is the location most used by residents of those two cities. The current library agreement allows residents of those cities to use any Prince William Public Library Branch.

Central Library users are encouraged to use other branches during Central’s six-month closure.

Manassas City is looking into the possibility of opening a new library in the Wellington Shopping Center, at the intersection of Wellington and Dumfries roads and outsourcing the operation of the library to a private firm.

Potomac Local has learned that some who sit on the city council would like to renegotiate the existing shared-services agreement between the city and the county library, which expires on June 30, 2020.