In just a few short days, the Deschutes Public Library’s new Central Library will open on the east side of Bend. For those who have gone by during the many months it’s stood there under construction, the 100,000-square-foot space is certainly hard to miss.
We are excited about it, but right now we’re also still concerned that Bend has failed to have a library open for the better part of a month. The downtown branch closed April 11 and won’t be open again for a year. The smaller east side branch closed permanently late last year. That’s left Central Oregon’s largest city without a vital resource center for some of the region’s most vulnerable people.
The library system did well by adding another gem of a building to its inventory, but in the weeks leading up to it, the community could have been served better.
Sure, people have been able to reserve and pick up books. We appreciate the continued access to the media that taxpayers here have paid for. But really, those who love libraries know that they are about much more than books. They are third spaces for families to get out of the house and attend story time. They are meeting spaces. They are computer labs accessed by those without their own machines, who use them for finding jobs or employment or resources.
These are the people we’ve had in mind throughout recent weeks — those for whom walking in the doors of a library means so much more than reading material.
We understand that transitioning to a new, larger space across town is not going to be easy for library staff. We get that shutting down the downtown library entirely was what leaders deemed most appropriate during its renovation. But when this collection of decisions means diminished access to some of modern life’s most basic resources, we know there could have been a better way. Even now, with the new library opening this week, its location on the far east side is going to be more difficult for some to access. It’s certainly better than no library at all, but we still believe more could have been put in place to keep services rolling in downtown Bend during this transition, and the renovation.
When the new library opens to the public on May 11, we’ll delight in the new, brightly lit, energy-efficient space. We’ll marvel at the extensive art collection. We’ll have fun exploring the MakerSpaces and Children’s Discovery Spaces. But we won’t overlook the access to technology that will once again be available to some of the region’s most in need.
The library system did well by adding another gem of a building to its inventory, but in the weeks leading up to it, the community could have been served better.
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