Please remember the following key points as you talk with your friends, family, co-workers and City Councilors about the importance of including Central Library in the City of Tulsa’s new capital improvement funding plan.
Although details are not final, City of Tulsa elected officials are exploring project possibilities for a potential $917.9 million capital improvement funding package that would go to voters this November. Funding sources include extensions of third-penny and 0.167-cent sales taxes and issuance of general obligation bonds. Projects would include street repairs, other street-related projects and capital needs such as facility repairs. This new funding package will replace the previous 2008 Fix Our Streets program, which expires in 2014.
Customers who have selected Central Library as their holds pickup location will have their holds automatically sent to the Librarium after Aug. 30.
Today, for existing holds not yet in transit or not ready for pickup, customers can change their pickup location to another library:
Central Library will close August 30 and undergo an exciting two-year renovation project.
During renovation, we will provide select services for customers at Librarium, a temporary facility located at 11th and Denver. It will open September 3.
Central Library’s electrical consumption is currently 2,472,690 kWh’s, after the remodel it will be around 1,454,660 kWh’s – the savings of which calculates to the yearly average usage of 56 Oklahoma homes. Water savings after the remodel is expected to save 91,000 gallons which equals the yearly average usage of 16 Oklahoma homes.
Raised floors on 1st, 2nd & 3rd floors, will offer electrical outlets for those who choose to take advantage of the library’s free WiFi and their own electronic device for research.
Today, Central Library has about 90 public computers, including a computer lab, a literacy lab and some hand-held devices. The renovated Central Library will have 120 public computers, including a computer lab that will work as both a traditional computer classroom and as a collaboration space for small group use when there isn’t a regular class scheduled. Public computers will be located on 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors. Free WiFi will be available throughout the facility.
The Tulsa City-County Library has announced final plans for renovating Central Library in downtown Tulsa.
The $47.8 million project is scheduled to begin in September and will last approximately two years. The plan calls for functional and safety improvements as well as entirely new features to better serve the changing needs of customers.
“We will open within its walls a new kind of library, one where 21st century customers can not only engage in lifelong learning, but also where they can convene, collaborate and create,” said library CEO Gary Shaffer about Tulsa City-County Library’s plans to remake and reimagine the Central Library.
New features of the renovated Central Library will include:
It used to be that when you went to a book repository you had to look up a book in a catalog or index, then go up to a librarian and make a request for him or her to retrieve it for you.
In 1965, the Tulsa City-County Library reformed our idea of what a library is, becoming one of the first in the nation to use today's standard of browsing books in an "Open Library."
Today, the library continues to serve all members of the community, serving as a gateway to resources for students, young and old, families, community groups, entrepreneurs and large businesses.
