Stillwater County Public Library

Columbus, Montana

The Heart of the Community

​

The Stillwater County Public Library and County Building embarked upon a “re-imagination” process with the goals of evaluating the library’s position in the community and best explore how to potentially change or combine their facility to enhance programs that would support the ideas associated with those of a great 21st Century Library. The mission of the Stillwater County Library is to be an information center for the Stillwater County community in order to reserve and encourage the free expression of ideas essential to informed citizenry. The program incorporated physical collection expansion, quite reading space, seating areas, expanding upon original meeting room space and designing for flexibility, expanding children’s and teen collections, new conference room, new flexible maker space, and a unique “grandma’s attic” space used for story time. The success of the Stillwater Library transformation was implemented by incorporating flexible design, fewer and smaller service points, collaboration, borrowing concepts from museums, more retail-like, and employs a minimalist ethic. The facility pushes the mission forward and continues to be a vital resource to the neighborhoods it serves.