Your moderator has noticed news about libraries cropping up all around us. So I thought I’d do a round up of where we can go to expand our literary passions:
Watha T. Daniel-Shaw Neighborhood Library
(Interim Library) 945 Rhode Island Ave NW, Washington, DC 20001
Phone: 202-671-0265
Hours of Operation
Mon: 1:00-9:00
Tue: 9:30-5:30
Wed: 1:00-9:00
Thu: 9:30-5:30
Fri: 9:30-5:30
Sat: 9:30-5:30
Sun: 1:00-5:00
This photo is a rendering of the new library, which is in construction for an estimated opening in Spring 2010. The old building has been razed and services currently are being provided via an interim library.
According to the DCPL web site: The new three-story library will be approximately 20,000 square feet and will provide inviting spaces for services to adults, young adults and children, as well as multiple meeting spaces for community use. The library will have at least 30 public access computers, including a mobile laptop cart that can be used for computer literacy training classes. There’s a bunch of info at the DCPL site on the design process and community input into the new building. That sculpture you see in front of the building will actually light up in neon colors and is the creation of Shaw resident and sculptor Craig Kraft.
Here’s the Shaw library’s blog that outlines what’s going on daily and weekly as well as what new books are in.
Walker Jones Education Campus
Finally, the new library at the Walker Jones Educational Campus (See: Fenty announces the delivery of Northwest One’s Walker Jones Education Campus (WashBiz Journal, August 11, 2009)) is just a few blocks away on New Jersey Ave. This libary is 5,000 sq ft and is scheduled to open this November.
This is called the district’s first school, recreation and library joint facility. See this news report on the old Waker Jones school, which talks about rat infestation, mold and no working heat in the winter before the school was shut down.
Sursum Corda Library
- Sursum Corda Library
135 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20009
Hours of Operation: Mon.-Fri. 9:30-5:30
Phone: (202) 724-4772
At 135 New York Ave. NW (beside the 1st and NY Ave Park), this was the nearest library to the Bates/Dunbar area, but I believe it is closing or has closed. This blog I found about the school stopped new postings in July 2008. But then it seems it only began blogging in June of that year. On this page of the Libraries web site, is an extensive history of the Sursum Corda library. It says it was opened in 1993 as the last of four prefabricated libraries that were part of the Model Cities Urban Revitalization project. If you are interested in DC history, it’s an interesting read. The page says, “Today, the Sursum Corda Community Library lends approximately 2,000 books annually and provides special programs and services to the community such as children’s activities and paperback books for homeless shelters.” So maybe it isn’t closed?
I have heard neighborhood leaders complain that our area no longer has its own library. I’d be interested to know having a smaller, more intimate library with a limited selection but closer proximity beats having a larger better library that’s some blocks farther away? What do you think?
Update: A reader points out in the commentary below that this library has been closed for a few months now.
MLK Library
This is DC’s main library and is fairly close too at 9th and G Streets NW. I won’t say much about this but you can read about it yourself here.
Online Services
Finally, if you’d like to enjoy the library’s offering but just can’t be bothered or aren’t able to walk to these libraries, the DCPL lets you download books, movies, music, etc. Right from their Web site! Look here to see their choices.
Bates Area Civic Association 
I had to laugh at how this posting is a perfect example of the paradoxes sometimes apparent in “neighborhood” blogs! Would it really be so hard for the blogger to walk down the street and observe for herself whether or not the Sursum Corda library is still open and functioning? Or is the information available through a quick Google search really the only viable method for researching a question like this?
After seeing the library with my own two eyes, peering in through dirty windows and walking over unkempt grass, I can tell you all confidently that the library is closed and has been sitting there empty for several months now. Its functions will be taken over by the new Walker Jones library across the street.
Ha! good point, but the “blogger” you mention is also your neighbor. No need to be generic about your criticism (another one of those paradoxes?). And this is NOT my day job. I had a fit of inspiration on writing this entry last night. I did intend to walk the dogs over there when I got a chance to check it out for myself, but thanks for the info. I figured if I posted it someone would know.
No worries at all — I’ve often been guilty of the very same thing! Sometimes I forget that there’s a real world beyond my laptop’s screen. Thanks for the updates.
Great work Caryn and excellent information! You truly are the best and I still don’t understand how you have time for this!!
thanks pete.
Yeah about the sursum corda library- it was actually a big deal when they closed it because about a year earlier at a baca meeting the head of dc libraries promised it would remain open until the new library was open…
actually, part of the point of a neighborhood blog is that you can ask questions and get friendly answers.
its a way of sharing.
N.cap – I wish you’d leave a real email. I normally haven’t approved your comments because you don’t. You’re comments are worthwhile so let your friendly moderator here know you’re real! thanks.
Just to clarify something — the Sursum Corda library is being replaced by one that will be part of the Northwest One location. See http://www.dclibrary.org/node/596 for more info.