Kathleen Hirooka explains the benefits that passing Measure N—the Neighborhood and Main Library Improvement, Expansion, Repair and Construction Facilities Bond Measure—will confer on Oakland’s libraries.

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Measure N, the Neighborhood and Main Library Improvement, Expansion, Repair and Construction Facilities Bond Measure is now on the November 7th ballot. If passed, it would be the first dedicated library bond measure that Oaklanders have passed since World War II, when they voted to build the current Main, Lakeview and Elmhurst branches. The average age of most of the Oakland libraries is now over forty years old.

If the $148 million bond measure passes, it will fund repairs and renovations at every branch library; expand the Asian, Dimond, Lakeview, Martin Luther King, Jr., Piedmont Avenue and West Oakland branches; build a new library in the Laurel District; provide funding to complete a joint Oakland Unified School District/public library in East Oakland; and renovate and construct a new Main Library at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center.

For the Lakeview Branch, the planned improvements will mean a 60 percent expansion in size; addition of public restrooms; structural repairs to the foundation; improved ventilation and noise control; enlarged areas for more computers, meeting room space, teens and kids; new interior/exterior finishes including carpet and paint; and proper ADA access and equipment.

The nearby renovated Kaiser would support Lakeview and other branches with its more comprehensive collections; a climate controlled Oakland History Center; theatre and meeting spaces; public parking lot; computer, administrative and reference support; more popular collections; a café; and space for nearly 3–4 times the number of public computers as the current Main Library.

For more information about this important measure, the Oakland Public Library has a Measure N Fact Sheet and a list of the Proposed Main and Branch Library Improvements, available on its Web site, oaklandlibrary.org. Copies are also available soon in branches.

As a service to the public, the Library also has Campaign Tables at each site where people can leave or look at campaign materials—both pro and con—on the various issues and candidates on the November ballot. Come on by and check it out!

Kathleen Hirooka, Community Relations Coordinator
Oakland Public Library
khirooka@oaklandlibrary.org
125 14th Street
Oakland, CA. 94612
(510) 238-6713; Fax (510) 238-4923

[Editor’s note: This letter is the first in a series of three related letters:

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