Southern Nevada’s first “mall library” is a full-service operation -- from circulation desks to Wi-Fi Internet access -- just on a slightly smaller scale. Its 1,300-square-foot location on the mall’s lower level carries bestsellers and high interest books, making the library a welcome addition after the closing of the mall’s bookstore, B. Dalton.
“The only things we don’t have are CDs and DVDs,” says Outreach Staff Specialist Tamra Shaner. “But patrons can still request and pick those up here.” Getting an entire library to run inside a busy mall might sound like quite the undertaking, but Henderson Libraries worked for months to turn the idea into a reality.
“We were talking to mall people about a year ago about doing storytimes here,” says Henderson Libraries Outreach Manager Evelyn Walkowicz on the library’s origin.
Though thoughts of doing storytime at the food court fell through -- “there’s too much commotion,” Walkowicz says -- the Galleria at Sunset told Henderson Libraries when a space became available.
Plans for putting up a full library were soon underway.
“It took a lot of man hours to turn this place from toy store to library in six weeks,” Walkowicz says. But rather than call it difficult, she considers the whole project exciting. “Having a mall library is an interesting concept that we’ve seen in other communities. I thought it’d be a great way to attract mall users that might not always come to the library traditionally.”
The opening of the Galleria Library served as a kick-off event for Nevada Reading Week (March 2-6) as well as National Reading Month, with such festivities as a ribboncutting ceremony, a reading by author and local weatherman Kevin Janison, costumed characters sponsored by Cox Communications and give-aways.
Coronado High School senior Michael Salerno, who volunteered for the event through National Honor
Society, handed out cookies to children, teens and adults who were drawn to the festivities and curious about this newest kind of library.
“It’s pretty cool having a library in the mall,” Salerno says. “It’s a good spot to get people to read.”
According to Shaner, who manned the library’s help desk during opening ceremonies, the Galleria Library will also be hosting programs from children’s activities to teen events.
Walkowicz adds that the library plans to develop all these aspects and grow.
“Within the next few months we’re expanding our open hours -- right now it’s only 29 hours a week -- and we hope to see more teens in and out and patrons taking advantage of our Wi-Fi,” she says.