RPLF Donors have helped make all this happen….
Announcing Riverside’s New Main Library
Erin Christmas, Library Director, City of Riverside, suggests we all drive down Mission Inn Avenue, just past Market Street, to see the new Main Library. It is situated in a “cultural corridor” near the Fox Performing Arts Center and Riverside City College’s Henry W. Coil Sr. and Alice Edna Coil School for the Arts. The new four story, $43.3 million, 42,000 square foot building with enormous windows shows panoramic views of Riverside.
On the ground floor is the Friends of the Library Bookstore where the public can buy used books, audio books, book bags, and other materials with proceeds going to the library. Here is also access to the Community Room. The second floor is closed to the public as it houses the City Archive for historical documents. A glass enclosed elevator goes to the third and fourth floors where the public has access to the library’s facilities. On the third floor is the Outdoor Terrace featuring trees and places to sit plus the brightly colored Children’s Area and the Innovation Room. The fourth floor houses the Adult Area where patrons can check out books, other materials, and one of the 60 laptops for use on site.
Our Accomplishments include
Here are just some of the ways our donors have helped us fulfill our mission:
- Through our 2021 annual campaign, raised another $55,000 for e-books and digital online resources (e.g, e-audiobooks, reference materials, magazines, and language learning materials).
- Through our 2020 annual campaign “Our 21st Century Library”, raised funds to provide digital, online materials (e.g. e-books, e-audiobooks, e-reference materials, e-magazines, and online language learning). This was specially vital in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic to help provide continued access to library materials.
- Through our 2019 “Riverside Kids Read” campaign, raised funds to support early literacy programs such as “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” and the STAR (Story Telling and Retelling) programs.
- Through our 2018 annual campaign, raised funds to support the Art Lending Library.
- Also raised funds in 2018 for the library to purchase: laptop computers to fill the first Laptop Kiosk, wireless printing technology for all library locations, a renovation of the Casa Blanca Library computer lab, and upgrades to the Story Mobile.
- Raised funds to bring self-service kiosks (Smart-Serve 1000's) to each of the Riverside libraries.
- Raised funds for Toys-to-Go, a toy-lending library in all 8 locations.
- Raised the funds for the new Maker Space in the Main Library
- Raised approximately $200,000 for the new Orange Terrace Library.
Other projects funded over the past 26 years include:
- On-Line Homework Help for Riverside Students
- READy-Set-Go Storymobile
- Story Time Kits for Daycare Providers
- Furnishings & Artwork for the Casa Blanca Family Learning Center
- Computers for the Eastside Cybrary
- Best Sellers & Children's Books
- A Special Collection of Martin Luther King Materials
- Affordable Computer Buying Program For Low Income Students & Their Families
- A Refurbished Downtown Library Auditorium
- Veterans' Oral History Project