For Immediate Release: August 1, 2006

Library Bond Measure Headed for the November 7 Ballot

(Oakland, CA) - The Oakland City Council in July approved a proposal to fund the Library's Master Facilities Plan, a move that adds a new Library Bond measure to the November 7, 2006 ballot.  Now Oakland voters will decide whether to fund $148,000,000 for system and structural upgrades at all branch libraries, the construction of two new branch library facilities, and the creation of a new Main Library in the Kaiser Convention Center Arena.

The Plan is the result of four years of extensive community meetings and outreach that culminated in June with Community Open Houses and Master Plan discussions at all library branches. The bond plan would significantly expand the busy Asian and Dimond Branch Libraries by over 50%, the Lakeview Branch Library by over 60%, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Branch Library by 25%, the Piedmont Avenue Branch Library by 200% and the West Oakland Branch by 125%. If passed, it would also fund new libraries in the under-served communities of Laurel and 81st Avenue in East Oakland. Additional upgrades are proposed for the remainder of the Library's facilities, including the Library's African American Museum and Library.

The Main Library part of the plan calls for a transformation of the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center Arena, closed by the City of Oakland since January 2006, into a state-of-the-art library complete with open and accessible book collections, an expanded Oakland History Room, study rooms, over 200 computers, meeting rooms available to the public and for library programs, a café, parking lot, Wi-Fi capability and dedicated children's and teen spaces. It would also house the Library's vital central functions that support the rest of the system, including Computer Services, Cataloging and Processing, Administration, and Programming. The plan calls for 110,000 square feet of the Kaiser to be completed, doubling the size of the current 55-year old Main Library.

Oakland 's last library-dedicated bond measure passed in 1945 when approximately $1.7 million was approved to build the current Main, Lakeview and Elmhurst libraries. 

For more information, please call (510) 238-3040. A copy of the Council Ordinance is available on the Library's Web site: www.oaklandlibrary.org. The Oakland Public Library is a department of the City of Oakland.

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