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- The Park Central Branch Library—the ninth Springfield-Greene County Library District facility—opened on Friday, April 4, during the popular First Friday Artwalk.
- The 3,100-square-foot, expansively-glassed storefront is located in a portion of the renovated Kresge building that faces the southwest side of Springfield's Square.
- The Park Central Branch Library, an arts- and media-themed non-traditional facility, features a small collection of popular fiction and nonfiction books, a wide selection of local, national and international newspapers and magazines, all on face-out shelving, plus DVDs and CDs.
- More than a dozen computer stations provide downtown patrons with high-speed access to the Internet, e-mail and the Library's informative research databases.
- The facility includes flat-screen TVs, a self-checkout machine, gallery walls, reading cubes, ottomans and lounge chairs.
- Beverages, pastries and snacks are available via an interior doorway to the adjacent The Coffee Ethic. Hours of operation are 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
- "All of the décor, furnishings, collections and services were selected to capture the cultural and recreational rhythms of downtown and provide a vibrant and inviting library for the people who live, work, play and visit the urban area," said Executive Director Annie Busch.
- Much of the interior is funded by a grant of $250,000 from the C.W.Titus Foundation, the Tulsa, Oklahoma, based organization that has provided financial support for several previous Library District projects. "This grant means more than furniture and paint," said Busch. "With this help from the Titus Foundation, we were able to create the unique library spaces that the public has come to expect. These funds allowed us to bring our vision of a destination library downtown."
- The Park Central Branch Library joins the two destination libraries, the Library Center and the Library Station, and the neighborhood facilities, Brentwood and Midtown Carnegie Branches. Four branches are located in the Greene County towns of Republic, Willard, Ash Grove and Fair Grove.
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| -Jeanne Duffey, Community Relations Director,
Springfield-Greene County Library District. |
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