Florida: “Revamped $7.7 Million Downtown Pensacola Library Opens”
From The Pensacola News Journal
About 200 elected officials, other dignitaries and members of the public gathered at the newly renovated and expanded 51,000-square-foot facility. The library, located at the intersection of Spring and Gregory streets, is the main branch of the West Florida Public Library system.
A wing of the new facility was dedicated to Maurice Bartholemew, a firefighter who died in the line of duty in 2000.
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The revamped library — expanded for the first time since 1957 — is now home to nearly 120,000 books, 15,000 CDs and 50 computers. The children’s section is twice the size of the old one and there is a new meeting room that seats up 200. The project cost $7.7 million.
Read the Complete Article
Take a Video Tour of the Facility and More Details (via Pensacola News Journal)
The new 51,000 square-foot facility features a wave themed area for children and teens, access to nearly 50 public computers, community meeting rooms, a coffee shop, and a Friends of the Library bookstore.
The library which has gone entirely green is also the first City facility to gain LEED certification.
Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.