Bowling Green Public Library’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted this month to honor former board member and longtime library supporter Bob Kirby by naming the new Greenwood area location after him.

The Bob Kirby Branch Library will be off Scottsville Road, across from where his childhood home once stood. It is set to open in early 2008.

Kirby served on the Library Board from 1994-1998. During that time, he was instrumental in revising the library’s financial plan, which led to extensive improvements throughout the library system, including the renovation of its State Street location and the Smiths Grove Branch, as well as the creation of the Library Endowment Fund, according to a news release from the library. Following his tenure on the board, he served for a term on the Library Advisory Board and received the library’s annual Franklin Award in 2003.

&#8220Many of the library’s successes through the years can be attributed to Bob,” board chairman Jim Johnson said in a news release. &#8220He steered the course for the library through a number of difficult times, and he continues to work behind the scenes to support the library. He has provided me counsel and advice, as well as historic perspective, on numerous occasions during my board tenure. He is the most sincere, honest and effective person I have ever known.”