TACOMA, Wash. — Community organizers in Tacoma's Hilltop and the Eastside communities have been calling for a library to be built in their neighborhoods since the MLK and Swan Creek Libraries were closed in 2011.
“We need this,” explained Linda Oliver, Chairperson of the Hilltop Planning Committee. “It’s not a want, and I want people to understand this: it’s a need.”
The Hilltop Library Planning Committee says since the MLK Library closed in 2011, a large gap was left in the community, and the entire Hilltop has felt it.
“They would tell me stories about how they went to that library, and it was closed,” Oliver said. “And families would tell me, ‘Well where can we go?”
But that may finally be changing. Last year, Tacoma set aside $350,000 to put together a Tacoma Public Library Eastside and Hilltop Feasibility Study.
The study’s aim is to figure out the most effective way to get the resources and services that come with libraries, such as Internet access and meeting places, back into these neighborhoods.
Tacoma Public Library Director Kate Larsen says that libraries play crucial role in community building, not just for the resources they provide, but as an asset to the local economy.
“Studies have shown that libraries bring an economic halo, a halo effect into neighborhoods, so when there’s a strong library located in a neighborhood then it can draw in businesses if there aren’t businesses already,” Larsen explained. “There are multiple examples of this throughout the nation, where beautiful library buildings are built and become an anchor in the community, they draw tourism, they draw in residents, and they draw economic activity.”
The study also explores at other options for the Hilltop and Eastside, such as bookmobiles or partnering with another organization to use some of their space.
But Mrs. Oliver says that’s not good enough, because a library is more than just its books and bricks.
“We need something solid,” Oliver said. “If you just throw it in a corner, what does that show our people? What does it show the community? ‘We don’t think very much of you, but we’ll give you this.’ No! We need a library to show what our worth is in this community.”
As part of the study, Tacoma Public Libraries has been reaching out to community members since last fall to get an idea of what they’d like to see from their library. That outreach will wrap up with an in-person workshopping event at the Eastside Community Center at 11:00 am, Saturday, Feb. 5.