Varina Library earns national award
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The Varina Area Library is one of six national winners of the Library Journal's New Landmark Libraries 2019 competition. The program recognizes libraries that it views as benchmarks for future libraries to emulate.
Judging criteria included community engagement in design; sustainability; functionality; innovation; and beauty and delight. Five judges, including one from Virginia Beach, and a project coordinator reviewed applications and selected the winners.
Since the new building opened in 2016, visits have increased 188 percent and programming has increased by 481 percent. The library has also been able to offer more hours, more staff, more collections, and more activities.
Judges appreciated that the county listened to its citizens and incorporated "a diversity of voices" into the planning process.
"The Varina Area Library embraces its future while honoring its past through design, programming, and preserving natural habitat in a diversifying region," the magazine wrote.
The 2019 NLL series sought projects completed between January 2016 and March 1, 2019, whether extensive renovations or new buildings.
