Madison McCormick, age 5, works on a puzzle Tuesday at the new Jesse M. Smith Memorial Library in Burrillville.   Call Photo/Joseph Fitzgerald 

By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

BURRILLVILLE — Library Director Sandra P. Mundy was understandably nervous when the new Jesse M. Smith Memorial Library opened its doors to the public on Monday.

That was the day of the library’s “soft opening,” with Mundy figuring it would be prudent to give the new facility a test run before the official opening a day later.
She also thought attendance on Monday would be light, that just enough people would stop by to give her staff a chance to test operations and work out any bugs.
To Mundy’s surprise, hundreds of people stopped by shortly after the library opened Monday morning, anxious to get their first up close look at the new $9 million enterprise in the heart of Harrisville.
That number doubled on Tuesday when the library officially opened to the public and conducted its first official day of business.
And the verdict as far as patrons are concerned couldn’t have been any clearer: Burrillvillians love their new town library.
Flip through the pages of the guest book, and the words “awesome” and “beautiful” show up again and again from  first-time visitors.
“Everyone loves it,” Mundy said. “We weren’t expecting that many people for the soft opening, but by the end of the day more than 200 people had come through.”
Most of them, she said, were the after school youngsters who have been without a library for the past few weeks. The old library on Main Street was closed for the better part of March as library officials moved the library’s collection to the new building.
On Tuesday, patrons young and old visited the 24,900-square-feet state-of-the-art library, which was in full swing an hour after it opened. Greeters were on hand to welcome visitors who signed a guestbook on the first floor. On the second floor, the children’s library was a beehive of activity.
“It’s beautiful and spacious and not cramped like the old library,” said Harrisville resident Norman Roy, who was poring over local history books looking for information on the historic home he owns in Harrisville.
Roger Contre of Pascoag was looking over the brand new computer stations, marveling at the decor. “It’s absolutely impressive. This is the kind of place you can come to and relax. It’s really beautiful,” he said.
More than a decade in the planning, the new library is seen as the cornerstone of efforts to revitalize the Stillwater Mill complex in Harrisville, the town's central village and home of Town Hall, the Assembly theater, the Austin T. Levy School, the Harrisville Post Office, and the old Jesse M. Smith library, which was badly overcrowded. That facility will be converted into municipal offices.
Town leaders and planners began considering a new library in the early 1990s, when population projections and other studies confirmed that the old building, with only 6,200 square feet, was overcrowded and would not meet state standards.
Newport Collaborative Architects Inc. was hired as the chief designer in the summer of 2004. In November of that year, town voters approved funding of the library. E.W. Burman Construction of Warwick came on board as project contractor.
One of the more impressive aspects of the new library is the “River Walk” along the water’s edge that provides views of the waterfall from various spots in the library.
The main reading room faces East Avenue to the north, and the two-story community meeting center, which also houses the children’s library, faces the new circulator road and the river.
“The reaction universally has been positive. People just love it,” said G. Wayne Miller, president of the Jesse M. Smith Memorial Library Board of Trustees and member of the Library Building Committee, who along with Committeeman David C. Ketcham, was on hand Tuesday to greet visitors.
“People can’t believe they have a library like this in their town. This is one place in town where everyone is welcome,” Miller said.
“It feels great to see the public’s reaction,” Ketcham said. “A lot of hard work went into this library and we’re very pleased with the result.”
So was Brenda Pugsley, who visited the library with 3-year-old Jeremy Fietz of Woonsocket, who she was babysitting on Tuesday. They decided to come to the library so Jeremy could find a book about sharks.
“It’s a beautiful library and so well organized,” Pugsley said. “We’ll be coming here a lot.”
Linda Coletta, a resident of the nearby Stillwater Heights elderly complex, was enjoying her afternoon reading a newspaper in the comfortable new furniture near a large window overlooking the River Walk.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. “It’s gorgeous.”
Children’s Librarian Cindy L. Szymanski said the youngsters who visited Monday and Tuesday automatically gravitated to the puzzle tables and reading nook without any guidance or direction from library staff, an indication of how well designed the facility is,
“It’s working just the way I envisioned it would,” she said. “I couldn’t be happier.”
The town’s grand opening ceremony for the new library will be held Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m. Speakers will be U.S Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI),  U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI). The ceremony will include tours of the library and light refreshments.
The library is open Monday to Wednesday 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Thursday 1 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Summer Saturday hours will be 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The new telephone number at the library is 710-7800. The new library Web site at www.jmslibrary.org is up and running, but is still under construction.
The first River Walk event will be held on May 31 with a film presentation of the documentary “You Must Be This Tall: The Story of Rocky Point Park.”