ASHLAND, KENTUCKY — Boyd County Public Library is putting the finishing touches on the new Midland Branch in preparation to celebrate its grand opening next month. A little over a year in the making, the highly anticipated Midland Branch, located at 6686 U.S. Route 60 just outside of Ashland, will open its doors to the public with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 13.

“It’s so exciting to finally see this become a reality,” library director Debbie Cosper said. “The new Midland Branch is a wonderful facility for the community to use for years to come.”

The 18,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility includes many new features and areas for the public to use, such as:

• A drive-up service window to offer continued pick-up and drop-off of materials

• A 100-seat meeting room with catering/kitchen space

• Designated spaces for adults, kids and teens

• Three times as much space for materials as the former Kyova branch

• More public restrooms, including in the children’s area, and a nursing room

• An enhanced makerspace with audio and video recording equipment

• Two private study rooms

• A small business center

• An outdoor covered patio

• A dual-sided fireplace for the inside seating area and the patio seating area

• A large parking lot that can accommodate about 100 cars including space for a school bus

• A multitude of north-facing windows for natural lighting

The total space under roof is 19,700-square-feet and also centralizes staff space to include:

• Homebound Services

• Storage

• Off-site archival storage

Work began in July 2020 on the new facility, which is part of the library’s seven-year strategic plan. Sherman Carter Barnhart Architects developed the plans for the new branch and issued requests for bid for construction. Trace Creek Construction was awarded the contract and has many years of experience including other library facilities in the state of Kentucky which now also includes the Midland Branch.

Boyd County Public Library is the largest public library in Eastern Kentucky with more than 40,000 patrons and three locations – Ashland Branch (1740 Central Ave.), Catlettsburg Branch (2704 Louisa Street), Midland Branch (6686 US Route 60) as well as the online branch at www.thebookplace.org and a mobile app. For more information, contact the Boyd County Public Library at 606-329-0090.