Will this library really help us in Iron, St Francois, Wayne, Shannon Counties? *********** This news was current back in Sep '06. Missouri and Kansas were mid-stage settlement places for the Irish of the mid to late 1800s on their trek from the East to West Coasts. The involved library is already well-known in the area, which is Independence, Missouri. It will likely become known much more widely. ********* The Mid-Continent Public Library recently bought 6.5 acres in Independence and plans to build what it calls a world-class genealogy center. The new center will be at the southwest corner of Lee’s Summit Road and Kiger Road, just south of the Drumm Farm Golf Course. Construction is expected to start in May and be completed in the spring of 2008. Library Director Richard Wilding estimated that he 52,000-square-foot, two-story facility will cost about $8 million to $9 million; it paid $550,000 for the land. He said the library plans to launch a fund-raising campaign. The new center will house a collection of family history from Missouri and Kansas, as well as national and international collections. This is expected to become the only facility of its magnitude in the region, Wilding said. It won’t be as large as the Mormon Family History Center in Salt Lake City, but that is a private facility. Wilding said he hopes it will be similar in stature to the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne, Ind. Mid-Continent Library already has a genealogy center on U.S. Highway 24, across from the Truman Library. Wilding said the 12,000-square-foot space was full and didn’t have enough space for researchers anymore. Wilding said the new building should accomodate the genealogy center for at least the next 20 years. It also will provide a lunchroom for researchers to use and a separate programming room for the libarary to hold genealogy classes.