Library begins new chapter

With the broken bottles glistening in vacant lots, marking a sluggish economy, and a constant stigma of after-hours danger, many assumed in the early 1980s that a new library in West Las Vegas wouldn't get much use.

The residents, however, knew differently.

"Originally we just had a little box over on D street," said Edward Watson, president of Friends and Family of the West Las Vegas library.

With a push from the community, the library was changed from a storefront on D Street to a 12,200-square-foot facility on West Lake Mead Boulevard built in 1989.

Ten years later, the library has outgrown itself, particularly in the children's section, where the shelves are jampacked with thousands of books.

The Young People's Library is responsible for 60 percent of the library's circulation. On any given night, that nook of the library is over crowded, library officials say. During the day, classes from local elementary schools are stuffed into the small reading room for story time.

This will soon change.

With recent approval of a 4,863 square-foot expansion of the Young People's Library, young readers will have some breathing room. And they can thank, in part, the same community involvement that resulted in the library being built.

While it is common for Las Vegas communities to play a significant role the design and growth of their library, none have worked harder than the people of West Las Vegas, library officials say.

"They have really worked for it. They have aggressively lobbied," said Barbara Robinson, a member of the Library Board.

Community members, many who belong to the Friends and Family of the West Las Vegas Library -- a 25-member group created to work as a liaison between the community and the Library District -- attended board meetings. They expressed their needs, researched the possibilities themselves and presented their own ideas to the Library Board.

Although some of the ideas were not considered -- cost-efficient building alternatives like straw bale did not make the cut -- and some of the lobbying was seen by some as a little demanding, both parties agreed that there was a need for expansion.

To see the expansion through, a building committee comprising community representatives, library employees and board members was formed last July, and Winston Henderson, an architect from the community, was hired to design the expansion.

"The community is ecstatic about how things have gone," said Kelly Richards, administrator for the West Las Vegas library. "In this project the No. 1 thing we wanted was openness with the community. Nothing went on behind closed doors."

That openness was important to the community. When the library was built in 1989, it was "smaller than promised," Watson said.

On the other hand, the community was thrilled just to have a new library, he added.

The Library District was one of the first institutions to put a new facility in West Las Vegas, Richards said.

The original fight for the library and the process for the current expansion give a glimpse into the unique relationship between the West Las Vegas Library and the community it serves.

In a traditionally black part of town, the library serves as a center of black culture and black heritage. Books by black authors are stacked in abundance on the shelves. Posters of black American heroes and authors hang in the children's section.

"We specialize in black history," said young people's librarian Nancy Hutchinson. "It's important to us that our children know their heritage."

While the Friends and Family of Southern Nevada Libraries contributes to all the libraries in the district, the West Las Vegas Library is the only one in the valley with its own group, and the Friends of the West Las Vegas Library focuses on ensuring its library serves the needs of the neighborhood.

"They really have a pulse on their community," said Karen Bramwell, spokeswoman for the Library District.

To see that the library has a growing selection of African materials, the Friends and Family of the West Las Vegas Library raised the money throughout the community to send Richards to a book fair in Zimbabwe -- the largest book fair in Africa -- so that he could bring back ideas, connections and indigenous books.

The main purpose is to see what Black Africans were writing for their children and to bring those materials back to West Las Vegas, Richards said.

"Anything we need around here, if they could buy it, they would," Richards said of the organization. "They've done a lot for the library."

The organization also holds book drives to inspire community entities, such as churches and community groups to check out books. Plaques are awarded to the top three groups.

"Our purpose is to make that library one of the most wanted places to be." Watson said.

Such efforts have boosted the library's circulation from 600 volumes a year when the new building opened nine years ago to 18,000 volumes a year, Watson said.

The library theater is also booming.

The 299-seat theater, built in 1995, is one of the two busiest theaters in the district.

"The community has outgrown the theater since Day One," said Lawrence Weekly, treasurer for the Library Board. "With a talent show or anything the young people like, there's always a line out the door.

"That's big plus for a neighborhood that's considered, quote-unquote negative," he added.

The meeting rooms are also booked constantly by community groups, Weekly said. "Sometimes people are meeting on top of people."

The library services at least 3,000 preschool and elementary children a month through an outreach program in which Hutchinson spends 50 percent of her time at area schools recruiting library users through story time reading and promoting library services.

"Our goal is to have every child have a library card," Hutchinson said. "That way, the children feel that it's their library."

The expansion, which will extend from the west end of the library, will benefit library users of all ages, Richards said. The children's area will become an adult reference and quiet study, something that the library does not have now.

"There's a lot of community pride here," Richards said. "A lot of people are interested in the library."

That's reflected in the respect the building seems to garner.

The library has remained mostly unscathed by graffiti artists. A 2-by-4-inch black mark on one pillars is the only bit of graffiti the building has seen in 10 years, Richards said. During the Rodney King riots, while the rest of the neighborhood crumbled, the library suffered only a broken window.

Many didn't think the library would take off. "But it has," Watson said. "Past my wildest dreams."

archive