Spring greetings from the staff at the Healdsburg Regional Library.
We have been overjoyed to see the growing number of visitors to the library over the past year—our current numbers are inching closer to those we used to see pre-pandemic. As always, we’re here to let you know what’s new and invite you to take another look at your community library.
Speaking of visitors, we are thrilled to see many of you coming to the library for our new Sunday hours. As of a few months ago now, we are open to the public on Sundays from 1–5pm.
The library hasn’t been open on Sunday in recent local memory; having open hours seven days per week is a dream that has been made possible through the 2016 Measure Y tax measure. We have noticed that many local families with parents who work during the week are able to take advantage of the new hours.
As many of you are well aware, our library building has not undergone any major update since opening in 1988. Planning is now well underway for a “refresh” project currently set to take place in 2024.
This major update will include new carpets, furniture, bookshelves, better use of natural lighting, new restrooms and significant changes to the layout inside the building.
In addition to over $2 million budgeted by the library for this project, the City of Healdsburg (our landlord) is collaborating with the library to apply for a California State Library Building Forward Library Infrastructure Program grant that would provide significantly more funding for needed structural modernizations and improvements.
The project will also feature exciting new improvements in our Children’s and Teen areas, greatly supported by our local Friends of the Healdsburg Library. We are filled with gratitude for their generous donation to the effort and excited to share more with you as this project continues.
Although the refresh project will not officially begin until many more months have passed, we are working on other minor improvements in the meantime. In the next few months, we are anticipating the installation of a new BiblioBox unit at our location—a special pickup locker system that will allow our community to pick up requested items at the library 24/7.
Also, in preparation for the refresh, our Meeting Room is undergoing its own mini-refresh with new carpeting and paint during the month of March. Unfortunately, we have had to cancel or find new locations for a variety of events this month, but we are looking forward to seeing our newly updated space.
On the topic of the meeting room, which is located just inside the library off the main lobby, I wanted to inform you of a new system we have rolled out for requesting reservation of this room. The meeting room is used primarily for all of our official events and programming at the library, but it is also a valuable public meeting space when available.
We have a new calendar and booking system that allows anyone to request use of the meeting room at an upcoming date between seven days and three months in advance of an event. In order to make a request or determine availability, one need only visit our Events Calendar at sonomalibrary.org/events and follow the link near the top of the page to “Request a Meeting Room.”
I would encourage anyone interested to read our Policy on the Public Use of Meeting Rooms, also available via a link within the reservation request system.
