American Libraries recently published an article in their January/February 2015 issue entitled Referenda Roundup, which is an overview of how different libraries performed in the November mid-term election on a state-by-state basis. And when it comes to California, the Bay Area made headlines.
The county of Alameda has recently voted to give the Hayward Public Library the proceeds of a half-cent sales tax that will raise about $10 million per year, which will certainly help the construction and maintenance of the $60 million library building and park which will be completed by February of 2017. Hayward, the sixth largest city in the Bay Area, currently has the smallest libraries in the Bay Area when measured in square feet per capita (measuring in at about 0.25 square feet per person). It’s only 0.05 square feet per person away from the lowest in the entire state!
The new building is set to replace the current building, built in 1951, and will be three stories tall, and leveraging the latest in green technologies. The building will be zero-net-energy, running on solar power and no fossil fuels. In keeping with California’s need for water conservation, the library will harvest rain water from the nearby park, library roof, and parking garage into a 400,000 gallon storage tank which will filter and sterilize water when demand is high.
For more information on the new Hayward Public Library building, check out their website: http://www.haywardlibrary.org/
BayNet 