The Orono Public Library is half a million dollars closer to expanding.
An anonymous donor gave $500,000 to the Orono Public Library Foundation, the group announced Monday. The donation pushes total funding to more than $8 million.
More than 160 people have donated to the Orono Public Library Foundation’s multi-year campaign to nearly triple the building’s size, according to James Jackson Sanborn, president of the foundation. But fundraising isn’t finished yet.
To get to the foundation’s $8.62 million goal, more than half a million dollars in donations are still needed. So the foundation is beginning its community phase of the fundraising process, Jackson Sanborn said.
“We know this community will bring us to the finish line,” he said.
The majority of the funding, $6.2 million, has come from the Orono Town Council and Congressionally directed spending endorsed by U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins. People will now have to donate personally to help the library secure all funding by a July 31 deadline.
When Orono’s library was built in 2009, the need for more space was immediately apparent, Library Director Laurie Carpenter said. Just over a decade since its opening, the foundation began raising funds for a new building.
Size estimates and plans for the expansion have been changing since 2023 when the library first secured major funding contributions from the town and federal government. Current projections show a 15,244-square-foot library with new spaces for differing age groups.
The addition of a teen center, children’s area and reading rooms for adults show that the library is trying to make its space useful to all Orono residents, Carpenter said.
“Libraries are not on their way out, but are adapting and adjusting to new and expanding roles, including that of third space, a space that is critical for fostering community, reducing loneliness and promoting civic engagement,” Carpenter said.
As part of the community phase, the foundation will be at multiple Orono events in the next few months and hold an online “31 days of giving” event in July to finish the campaign, Jackson Sanborn said.
Roughly $555,000 needs to be raised in the next three months for the foundation to be ready for groundbreaking and construction, Jackson Sanborn said.
No date for a groundbreaking was shared.
Renderings done by Haley Ward for the new building show it expanding in almost every direction to create more space. The original building layout will still be in the center, with the new children’s area bringing the space closer to the Orono Village Green, a green space and amphitheater behind the library.
Although fundraising isn’t finished and construction hasn’t even started, the Orono community should be excited for the new building and what it will offer, Carpenter said.
“The future of the Orono Public Library is brighter than ever,” she said.
