|Kennett Square Life fe Q&A|
Christopher Manna Director, Kennett Library & Resource Center
It is nearly an inarguable and accepted epted truth that the construction of rce Center – slated for completion the new Kennett Library & Resource d about development in the recent in May of 2023 -- is the most talked 3,000 square-foot structure’s stunhistory of Kennett Square. As the 33,000 ning architecture is now visible in anticipation of its opening, Kennett brary Director Christopher Manna Square Life recently spoke with Library pact the communities it serves and about how the new library will impact its long-term imprint on the way we will learn in the future. Kennett Square Life: What began as a long-term term dream more than a decade ago became a giant hole in the ground and now, the dream am is rising above State Street and fully real in the form of the Kennett Library & Resource ce Center. As the Library’s new director, tell the readers of Kennett Square Life what goes oes through your mind when you look at its construction. Christopher Manna: What goes through my mind is what goes through my mind every time I hear of a new library being built acrosss the country. Our capital campaign is called the “Imagine Campaign,” and to that end, we are now imagining what this library will mean for the community. Through this building ing and the partnerships we’re building right now and will continue to build just down the e street, it will provide everyone with a higher quality of life throughout the Kennett area and the municipalities the Kennett Library & Resource Center will serve. Although you began as the director of the he Kennett Library last November, you are certainly no stranger to library projects. You u helped oversee a part of three library building projects when you were with the Pioneer er Library System in Moore, Oklahoma that included a $30 million, 50,000 square foot library ibrary that is scheduled to break ground this year. How does the director of a library continue ontinue to maintain balance in that middle ground that separates the present and the future? uture? In other words, how have you managed the current library while planning for the future one? Continued on Page 54 50
Kennett Square Life | Summer 2022 | www.chestercounty.com com
