New North Fort Myers Library to open Aug. 5
After nearly five years of planning and dreaming, the day of the grand opening of the new North Fort Myers Public Library is near.
The Lee County North Fort Myers Public Library, at 2001 N. Tamiami Trail, will open on Monday, Aug. 5, with a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled at 10 a.m.
Jill Horrom, of the Lee County Library System, said everyone is very excited to be able to finally introduce the new $13.5 million building, which will open at the start of the last week of summer camp.
“We were hoping to open in the summer and we’re going to open in the summer. We’ve been holding our summer reading activities at the rec center, who has partnered with us because our rental space is so small,” Horrom said.
The new 26,390-square-foot library replaces the old building that was about a third the size. It includes dedicated interior spaces for children, teens and adults with expanded comfortable seating and spaces for collaboration.
The library features a large meeting room as well as three study/conference rooms with audiovisual capabilities. Enclosed outdoor reading spaces and a courtyard are available for gathering and library programs.
The library features an automatic materials handling system, a gaming area for teens, a storytime space for children and 50 public-access computers.
It will offer a covered, drive-up book return and expanded parking. Both libraries will feature expanded book and audiovisual collections.
Horrom said there are so many possibilities that the old library wasn’t able to provide.
“We could have a school-age pugglemania program outside in the courtyard, a baby rhymetime in the storytime space, a book discussion in one of the meeting rooms, a videogame tournament in the teen area,” Horrom said. “We can have five or six programs going on at the same time.”
As for the temporary location on Pine Island Road, which opened in October 2017 after the old library closed, that branch will close just before the opening of the new library, Horrom said. The closing date has yet to be determined, but the hope is it wil be at a time that will least disrupt service.
Horrom said the process of moving has already begun.
“We have some things in storage, we’re acquiring new items that we haven’t put out at the rental space, and we’re going to move some stuff out while maintaining the collection and keeping the computers and media available,” Horrom said.
The North Fort Myers library was built in tandem with a new one in Bonita Springs, both of which had been planned since 2014. That library, built at about the same cost, will have its grand opening sometime during the week of Aug. 19.
Construction for each was paid for through existing library funds. The new facilities were constructed simultaneously at the direction of the Lee County Board of County Commissioners.