Photo by Ronnie R.

Shaw Library (Photo by Ronnie R.)

When one door closes, more than two dozen will stay open longer in D.C. next year. The D.C. Public Library system will open its neighborhood branches three hours earlier than normal on Thursdays due to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library’s planned three-year closure for a major modernization.

Richard Reyes-Gavilan, executive director of DCPL, told a crowd about the new hours last night, during the first of eight community meetings where DCPL will discuss the future of the flagship library and the interim plans during its closure. The 44-year-old downtown building is set to close some time next spring and re-open in 2020.

Currently, MLK is the only location that is open on Thursday mornings. Part of DCPL’s accommodations will include opening all 25 neighborhood libraries at 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays.

It’s also opening a Library Express location at 19th and K Streets NW, and working to make the most requested special collections available elsewhere.

MLK Library’s $208 million transformation will include a new entryway and glass-enclosed stairwell, a large auditorium, spaces for fabrication, music production and art creation, a ground level café, an interactive children¹s space, and a rooftop terrace, among other things. The designs prioritize comfort, community, and respond to ways that the library is already used.

“We’re designing for people and not for objects,” D.C. Public Library executive director Richard Reyes-Gavilan explained before the re-opening of the Woodridge Library. That was the system’s 16th major modernization project, with another five currently in the works.

District residents can learn more about the library’s latest designs, offer feedback, and ask questions at the following meetings.

  • Nov. 14; 7 p.m. – Mount Pleasant Library; 3160 16th St. NW; (Ward 1)

  • Nov. 30; 7 p.m. – Southwest Library; 900 Wesley Place SW; (Ward 6)

  • Dec. 1; 7 p.m. – Shepherd Park/Juanita E. Thornton Library; 7420 Georgia Ave. NW; (Ward 4)

  • Dec. 5; 6:30 p.m. – Woodridge Library; 1801 Hamlin St. NE; (Ward 5)

  • Dec. 7; 5:30 p.m. – Francis A. Gregory Library; 3660 Alabama Ave. SE; (Ward 7)

  • Dec. 13; 7 p.m. – Tenley-Friendship Library; 4450 Wisconsin Ave. NW; (Ward 3)

  • Dec. 15; 6:30 p.m. – Anacostia Library; 1800 Good Hope Road SE; (Ward 8)

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