Kierra Whitaker, The Whetstone

Dover Public Library has been making a greater impact on the surrounding communities since opening its new building in 2012.

The library holds more than 20 community events a week.

Library director Margery Cyr has been working at the public library for going on more than 10 years.

“Since opening the new library, it has become busier every day,” she said. “We are happy to serve the community with an updated library and more resources to the public.”

Dover Public Library was established more that 100 years ago.

The older building for the public library was located at 45 S. State St. and was built in the early 1960s. The library was less than half the size of the current building. In the mid-1970s there was a new area added to bringing the overall space to 17,000 square feet.

The library needed more space. The infrastructure was old and started to fail, including heating and air conditioning.

The newer Dover Public Library, at 35 Loockerman Plaza, holds 46,500 square feet.

The newer library has three floors, all of which are all handicapped accessible. The building includes two large meeting rooms, a children’s program room, and two small conference rooms.

The building also is LEED Gold certified and uses natural lighting, automated lighting, heating, and cooling systems. There are 40 geothermal wells under the parking lot and two ice tanks in the ground, which supply heating and cooling.

Michelle Hughes, the head of circulation, has been working at the Dover public library since 2010.

“I have a great time hosting events especially our book club that meets once a month,” she said.

Hughes said she is grateful for the bigger space so that the library can be a better resource to the public.

The biggest challenge that Cyr faces is managing the amount of people who use the library.

“With a bigger library it means more people than usual so we need more resources,” she said.

For the staff the new building has allowed them to develop more programs.

“The library offers enrichment and learning programs for all ages almost every day and these are attended by a nice cross-section of the community,” Cyr said.