The building funding came about as the result of an agreement between both Grantsville City and Tooele City in which longstanding contention between these two entities were settled by both Mayors Brent Marshall and Patrick Dunlavy and their respective city councils before going to litigation. To quote Mayor Marshall regarding the new spirit of cooperation, “this building is a tribute or a monument to the word ‘communication’ and people learning how to talk to each other”. The building itself is quite a show place. It is a large building designed by the architectural firm Blalock & Partners in Salt Lake City. The 10,800 square foot facility has soaring walls of glass on both the east and west walls and an impressive glass enclosed foyer at the main entrance located on the south side. Lots of rich mahogany serves to accent the glass both inside and outside of the building. The inverted roofline represents the Oquirrh Mountains to the east and the Stansbury Mountains to the west of Grantsville. One child recently told Mayor Marshall that it looks like an open book! The initial library collection is based on the old Tooele Co. Bookmobile collection which became available for purchase when that program was dissolved in December of 2012. This allowed the Grantsville City Library an opportunity to jump-start its collection development as the purchase included some 28,000 books, audio books, DVDs, and a reference collection. The building itself will ultimately accommodate more than 56,000 items. The Grantsville City Library offers a full range of services to the community. This includes a popular collection of books, audio books, DVDs, magazines and periodicals. The collaboration we have with the Utah State Library offers an additional selection of 18,000 downloadable e-books and audio books through the OverDrive service. The Pioneer online library is also available which offers the patron access to thousands of magazine and newspaper articles. Other Pioneer databases allow access to health, job, genealogy, business, and school research information. Additionally, the library building has multiple meeting rooms and a centrally located fireplace; an unusual feature for a library, but which fits wonderfully into the multipurpose aspect of the facility. Many Grantsville residents have already taken advantage of this by reserving space for their meetings. Others just come in to sit and enjoy the quiet ambiance that the facility offers. The Grantsville City Library has much to offer to those in Grantsville City and the greater Tooele Valley area. Come and visit when you can, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
