Libraries ready to turn page
Finally fixed after Harvey, locations now wait for pandemic to pass
Carol Galloway, an avid reader, purchased a pile of books to keep busy when the pandemic forced people to hunker at home. She caught up on bestselling fiction, memoirs, biographies — anything that piqued her interest. But soon, instead of buying books, the 80-yearold looks forward to visiting a historic institution with stacks upon stacks of free ones: the library.
“This is our lifeline in our community — and especially with our school,” said Galloway, a decadeslong Kashmere Gardens resident and former Houston ISD trustee. “The children always went over to the library. … Their parents are very excited now that they’ll be able to go back.”
Forced to close following Hurricane Harvey, the McCrane-Kashmere Gardens Neighborhood Library and Flores Neighborhood Library, in Second Ward, announced in mid-January that extensive repairs are complete and they will open their doors as soon as public health officials determine it is safe. A new library
concept called TECHLink recently celebrated its virtual opening in the Trinity/Houston Gardens neighborhood. The facility will replace the former Amanda Dixon Neighborhood Library, which closed for renovations before the 2017 natural disaster destroyed it beyond repair.
“Hurricane Harvey took out a lot of our libraries,” said Mayor Sylvester Turner during a virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony. “In spite of that, the Houston Public Library has stood tall and strong and proven to be resilient.”
For now, limited library services are available. Residents can place a hold on books, movies or other materials and make an appointment for curbside pickup through HPL TO GO. There is no firm date for full reopening, but virtual tours are available.
At the Kashmere Gardens library, the new space is equipped with a meeting room, computer lab and stacks of books separated into adult, teen and children’s sections with seating for each. It also features an information desk, self-service stations and two computer zones.
The larger Flores location also includes meeting rooms and separate children’s, teen and adult sections. The substantial renovation was funded in part by an $800,000 donation from the United Arab Emirates, part of their citywide Harvey reconstruction campaign. Other features include an outdoor patio, 3D printer and tablet checkout stations.
The TECHLink Dixon facility, funded in part by a $1.6 million donation from Aramco, will offer technology for music and video production, digital animation, graphic design, photo editing, coding and more, according to city officials. The building is designed with sustainability to prevent future flooding and reduce energy consumption. City and community leaders said the library will help bridge the digital divide and is the culmination of years of hard work.
The facility carries on the legacy of community, education and learning championed by its namesake, Amanda Dixon, said her daughter Bernadette. The original library was named after Dixon, who organized a bookmobile at her church before leading the effort to push for a physical library location in the neighborhood.
“She was an active member of her community and believed libraries could provide empowerment,” the younger Dixon said.
Across the library system, the pandemic has forced library staff to find innovative solutions to keep engaging with neighborhoods, said Edgar Fuentes, senior library manager. Book clubs, craft classes and story times moved to Facebook and YouTube.
“A lot of the things that we were doing in person, we really pivoted and shifted toward the virtual platform so that we can reach customers where they are in their living rooms,” Fuentes said.
The purpose of public libraries extends beyond books, Fuentes said. In Kashmere Gardens, 45 percent of households lacked internet connection in 2018, far above the citywide average, according to a Complete Communities report. The library offers laptops and hot spots that people can check out for weeks at a time, and parking lots are equipped with Wi-Fi — a feature that has increased in popularity, Fuentes said.
Some of these pandemic-driven services, such as curbside pickup, will likely continue beyond the pandemic, Fuentes said. But the physical space, too, remains vital for community meetings, skill-building classes or simply an after-school hangout.
“They are the third space, if you will,” Fuentes said. “There’s home, there’s work and then there’s the library . ... It’s one of those few places you can go that’s free.”
Three library branches, Kendall, Melcher and Lakewood, remain closed for Hurricane Harvey-related repairs, Fuentes said.
During the 2017 flooding disaster, the McCrane-Kashmere Gardens Neighborhood Library served as a shelter for residents whose homes flooded, said Keith Downey, president of the Kashmere Gardens Super Neighborhood No. 52. But people were forced to evacuate the library when a vertical drainage pipe broke, the building’s foundation cracked and floodwater came rushing up through the floor, Downey said.
Extensive repairs were required. Community advocates such as Downey and Galloway monitored the progress and repeatedly pushed city leaders to complete the renovation.
Before the Kashmere Gardens library closed, the space attracted nearly 55,000 annual visitors, city officials said. Staff offered temporary library services and programs at a nearby multiservice center during the yearslong closure, but fewer than half that number of people visited.
“It’s brought excitement,” Downey said about the anticipated reopening. “Because people want to see tangible growth in minority communities, and you don’t always see that growth, or it takes time for that growth to take place. We are grateful to the mayor for understanding that the library is a vital institution for the community.”
The library stands across the street from Kashmere Gardens Elementary School and serves more than 3,200 students in the feeder pattern, Downey said. The community leader recalls working on school reports for biology or physics in his own youth at the same library, where he felt a sense of gaining his own knowledge. Now, he hopes young people will use the same space to educate themselves, participate in events such as the spelling bee and learn their community’s history.
“It’s a place of structure,” Downey said. “A lot of our children need structure in their lives. They need to understand that it’s not just libraries in affluent areas of town — you can do research and get educated in structures on your side of town as well.”
Galloway, who lives two blocks from the neighborhood library, said she watched the virtual reopening ceremony and later peeked through the windows of the low brick building to get an early glimpse of the new space. It was colorful, bright and cheerful.
“I like what I see,” she said. “I just can’t wait until it’s accessible and the pandemic is over.”