WASHINGTON —Starting Monday, DC Public Library will be offering special services in order to accommodate patrons during the temporary shut down of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, which is closed for renovation.
Considered the heart of the DC Library system, the downtown library is closed due to a three-year, $208 million renovation project; all of the library’s materials have been moved out.
In the meantime, services at the library system’s other branches will try to mitigate the loss of the daytime hub for the District’s homeless, and the loss of a community center for reading and research.
Many of the items and services once offered at the MLK library will be offered throughout the system’s 25 branches. There are even plans to add a new, small library location near Farragut Square, according to DC Public Library’s website.
A “Library Express,” a small retail branch at 1990 K Street Northwest, will host an adult literary resource center, a computer training lab, a center that helps D.C. residents with disabilities and public access computers, among other services.
DC Public Library hours will also be extended, opening at 9:30 a.m. on Thursdays, instead of 1 p.m.
Additionally, library patrons can expect special collections, the Labs and an additional 50 laptops (dispersed throughout branches) to arrive at many branch locations.
The interim services will be available until the opening of the renovated MLK Library.
DC Public Library also is adding an Outreach Department that will provide services throughout the District.
The Capitol View Library, which also is closed for renovations, will reopen this fall with 44 public access computers. Additionally, the branch will host video visitation services for families of people in D.C. jail. Video visitation is already offered at Anacostia Library and Deanwood Recreation Center.
A new West End Library and a renovated Palisades Library are also set to open this fall.
