The New East County Library is set to open this spring! With construction beginning in early 2024, they built the building from the ground up. With the opening of this new, large library, the Gresham Library is permanently closing on March 26. Books from the old library are being transferred to this new location. The East County Library is approximately 95,000 square feet and features many amenities. The open space areas include around 200,000 books, CDs, and DVDs for use and checkout. Throughout the features, many may benefit students and staff at Sam Barlow, all of which can be found on the Multnomah County Library’s website.
This new two-story building is more than just a library. The building includes a 200-seat auditorium for celebrations, lectures, performances, and other events. They also have a large outdoor area included with the library called ‘Ikanum.’ The outdoors is a great place to relax and enjoy the scenery with a good book, or even to do homework. Ikanum also includes a plaza for music, speakers, and other events. Another large area open to the public for relaxation and quiet is their rooftop terrace. The location offers a pleasant spot to get some fresh air and sit down with a great book.
Within the building, they have many rooms that could offer enjoyable experiences for students. The East County Library has an audiovisual studio that could provide students with a tailored experience, using advanced technology. Another included feature is their creative learning room. The space can be used for classes or for students to explore areas of technology they enjoy, such as robotics, construction, or 3D printing. These options are not often found in school or other learning settings. With such an inclusion, young children and teens could develop new interests and grow their skills in those areas. Other areas of the building include the community rooms. The community rooms have eight smaller rooms, two medium rooms, and four large rooms. These spaces are perfect for large study groups or discussions, large team-building groups, or anything along those lines. This provides a perfect, closed-off spot to stay focused on your task at hand, rather than the distractions around you.
The library has improved Wi-Fi and technology, including laptops, iPads, and even creative software, available to the community. Students and teachers at our school can do a lot with these tools, such as completing homework, grading, and planning their classes. After polling teens’ opinions from many different schools in the area, the library decided on a theme for a very special room. A teen room will be available for free access. The theme, decided on by 550 people from Gresham High School, Dexter McCarty Middle School, Rosemary Anderson High School, and other libraries, was Cool Coastal. Chosen among three themes, Cool Coastal is a mix of various blues that can be correlated with deep oceans, rivers, lakes, mountain streams, snow, and ice. Most of the library and rooms feature very comfortable seating suitable for the area.
There are many other rooms and areas better suited to other ages and families. They have a large learning and play space for young children, both inside and outside. The building also includes two sensory rooms for those who may need support for their sensory needs.
