By SARA VAN DYCK Special to the Daily Press
Flanked by his skateboard, a man takes notes at a library table. Chairs in the periodical area are filled with people paging through the newspapers. A teenager picks a book from the summer reading list and patrons in the computer room surf the net.
The Temporary Main Library, at 1324 Fifth St., is in action and “it’s pretty much business as usual,” agrees a librarian. Patrons will find a full range of books, from romances and mysteries to biographies, the latest in the “Harry Potter” series and many other new titles.
Popular materials, including new books, newspapers, magazines, fiction, mysteries, paperbacks, graphic novels, DVDs, videos and CDs are featured on the second floor, which also houses young adult materials and a small children’s collection.
Nonfiction books, covering a wide range of subjects and topics, and reference materials are featured on the first floor.
Electronic resources are available on both levels and the popular Internet service can be signed up for on the second floor.
Reference librarians continue to assist the public and reference service is offered via e-mail and “24/7 Live Reference,” at the library’s Web site, www. smpl.org.
For more information, call (310) 458- 8600. A block away on Sixth Street, the old library is now rubble. The next step is for the shoring and excavation of the three-level underground parking facility and other site preparation.
Beginning this fall, the structural support for the underground parking garage will be laid with the two-story library structural underpinnings starting in early 2004. The 102,000-square-foot new Main Library, designed by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects of Santa Monica and built by Morley Construction, is expected to be completed sometime during the second half of 2005.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 25, 2003. Read the original PDF.