This library is on loan!
Brooklyn Public Library will open a temporary library in Dumbo next month.
The organization plans to open up a 1,600-square-foot space dubbed the “Annex” inside the ground floor of a John Street building beneath the Manhattan Bridge on Nov. 5, in order to service local bookworms until a full new library opens across the street next year, according to the borough’s chief bookworm.
“We are opening a library annex for our neighbors in Dumbo, Vinegar Hill, and the Farragut Houses as construction gets under way on our permanent home in the neighborhood,” said the head of Brooklyn Public Library Linda Johnson in a statement.
The provisional book lender will open on the ground floor of the building between Adams and Pearl streets with a slate of programs for kids and teens, such as story time and crafts, homework help, gaming workshops, and advisory council meetings for older kids and teens.
A small collection of books, and a laptop loan program will be available in the following months.
In spring of 2020, the outpost will also offer workshops to help with resumes and interviews, along with author talks and adult learning classes.
The Annex will provide space during the time when library officials are building a brand new $6 million library on the ground floor of an old factory building on Plymouth and Adams Street, which is slated to open in fall of 2020.
The 6,565 square foot Adams Street Library will be the first newly-built public library in the borough since 1983 and the 60th branch in the system.
That construction project is funded by $5 million city capital funds and $1 million proceeds from the controversial sale of the Brooklyn Heights Library to a developer for $52 million in 2014, which spawned protests from readers who accused the book lender of pandering to real estate interests.
Building company Hudson Companies razed the Cadman Plaza W. library in 2017 to make way for a 38-story luxe condo building dubbed One Clinton currently in construction with a new book borrowing branch at its base.
The sale of the aging Brooklyn Heights branch was intended to generate funds to prop the library system in general, which at the time suffered from nearly $300 million in repairs.
