Downtown San Diego's Library Funding Secured

Have you heard the news?! The 32.5 million dollars that the library still needed has been funded. Isn't that amazing?! I could not be more excited since I live in the East Village just blocks away from this beauty. Downtown's Central Library has been boasted, criticized and questioned for awhile now so when I heard this interview on NPR with Mel Katz, Chair of the San Diego Library Foundation, a renewed sense of hope and anticipation came over me (and other Downtown San Diego residents, I'm sure).

Downtown San Diego's Central Library is scheduled to open in the summer of 2013-that's next year, folks! With this funding secured, by a private entity who has not yet been revealed (though it's safe to say their name will be all over that library), construction will be completed. With that being declared, Mel Katz focused on where the library is at now. Fascinating stuff, I tell ya. Here are some hightlights:

• Hard hat tours of the library are available (at Park and J in the East Village)
• Fundraising for capital, endowment and special programming will be put into place
• Naming opportunities are still available
• Technology such as an app that serves as a GPS of the library, tablets, and interactive panels are in the making
• 40,000 people a week are expected to visit this library
• A school will occupy the 6th and 7th floors with 500 students
• 50 different reading nooks
• 6 conference rooms
• 22 study rooms
• Consoles with Wii's and Playstations will be found in the library
• 1/3 of the first floor will be a children's library
• 2nd floor will be a Teen Center
• 57 schools are within 2 1/2 miles of the library, hence the focus on youth areas
• Construction is now working on the 9th floor, the top floor
• The dome will be next which is a 3 story glass reading room and will take 4 months to complete

What an amazing center this will be and the enthusiasm of Mel Katz is contagious. I highly recommend listening to his interview because if you have doubts about this library, he will change your mind.