by Noella Noelophile®
Remember Saturdays at the library?
Coming home with a stack of books? Spending the day, in a sense, with Rumer Godden, E.B. White, Ruth Sawyer…or, later, Betty Smith, J.K. Rowling or Fannie Flagg?
On Saturday, September 21st, a brand-new library gets added to those memories. And that’ll be for kids of the next generation and “big kids” like us.
That morning, Long Beach’s new Billie Jean King Main Library hosts its grand opening.
At 9:30, the general public are invited to come see the new space. The official program starts around 10:15, with speakers including professional tennis champion Billie Jean King and Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia.
Food trucks, face painting and other activities will be part of the day’s festivities. And visitors are encouraged to come in, get a library card, check out books and see what the new facility has to offer.
The new library, according to a City of Long Beach press release, is a 92,500-square-foot building. It will have room for 300,000 books. A Veteran’s Resource Center and a Center for Adaptive Technology Center will be included.
So will an art studio and children’s storytelling space, meeting rooms and a Family Learning Center.
Among the library’s future plans are literacy services, financial services and job training.
In other words, the Billie Jean King Main Library will be doing exactly what libraries were designed to do.
Teaching people to dream–and providing the means to get there.