Mountain View/Beckwourth

The Mountain View/Beckwourth library is located in the Mountain View neighborhood of San Diego. The library is fairly averaged sized for a branch of its age, and is in the shape of a square with one of the corners consisting of an outside patio. It has a large selection of books for its size, and the number of shelves coupled with the tall ceilings make the branch feel bigger than it is.


The library sits in a park next to the Educational Cultural Complex, one of the campuses in the San Diego Community College District devoted solely to continuing education programs.

Bound by the 805 and 15 freeways to the East and West respectively, and by Imperial Avenue to the North and National Avenue to the South, the Mountain View neighborhood is one of the older and more urban parts of San Diego. It's located fairly close to downtown San Diego, only 2 miles from the Logan Heights library and 5 miles from the Central Library. The region is named after its views of the San Miguel Mountain, which is located in Chula Vista.

Allied Gardens/Benjamin Branch

The Allied Gardens/Benjamin branch library opened in 1965. The branch is among the smaller ones in the system at around 4,000 square feet, but has a really large collection of books for its size as well as a community meeting room, outdoor patio, and a separate reading room for periodicals. Like many other of the smaller branches, its high ceilings, natural light, and open layout make the library feel bigger than it actually is.



















Geographically, the Allied Gardens neighborhood kind of of expands concentrically around the area in which the library is located, which also includes a large public park, swimming pool, recreation center, and middle school. Allied Gardens is primarily residential and composes the northwestern component of the Navajo region of San Diego, which also includes Grantville, San Carlos, and Del Cerro. To the north, the neighborhood is bounded by the San Diego river, Mission Gorge, and Mission Trails Regional Park.

College-Rolando

As its name suggests, the College-Rolando public library branch sits between College Area to the north, a region named in reference to San Diego State University, and Rolando to the south, a primarily residential area that borders La Mesa and Lemon Grove. Like many libraries in the Mid-City area, the College-Rolando is located in a fairly condescend area that receives much more traffic than does an average neighborhood in San Diego. Located only a little over a mile from the heart of the SDSU, the area around the library features a lot of apartment complexes, retail stores, and small restaurants.

The College-Rolando branch was built in 2005 to replace the old College Heights branch, and is one of the larger branch libraries in the system at 15,000 square feet. The layout of the library is interesting in that the different components are divided and not really visible to each other. As with all public libraries, you're funneled towards the circulation desk as you enter the building. But beyond that point, each different part of the library, like the children's section, popular media, computer area, community rooms, and main stacks/reading room, are all in different wings of the library that all connect to the center lobby and the circulation desk. I like the organization of the branch, and it certainly gives it a feel that is distinct from any of the other branches I've visited so far.

Paradise Hills

Located in the Paradise Hills neighborhood of San Diego, the Paradise Hills branch library is the southernmost branch in what you could consider to be the "contiguous" city limits (the Otay Mesa/Nestor and San Ysidro branches, while being within city limits, are in the purple region in the map on the right and are separated from the rest of the city by Chula Vista, Bonita, and National City).

The Paradise Hills library is 3,875 square feet. More so than what I've seen at other branches, this branch is located adjacent to and across the street from residential homes, and you might almost think it to be another house if you weren't paying attention. In fact, it has a nice back patio which actually borders the yards of private residences. That being said, the branch is pretty easy to access, as it's on a corner that borders a major road, and has a good size parking lot. The branch also feels pretty spacious considering its small size.

I haven't been able to find an exact date on when it was built, but I'd date it around the same time as the openings of the Oak Park and old Skyline Hills branches, which were both completed in 1966.

University Community

The University Community branch library is located in University City, a large area named for it's proximity to the University of California, San Diego. The University City community is essentially composed of two main areas and each has its own branch library. University Town Center (UTC), the region directly to the east of UC San Diego, is home to the North University Community branch, and the area has a large concentration of apartments, condominiums, shopping centers, and office parks. Divided from UTC by Rose Canyon, the southern part of University City is primarily a residential area with single family homes, and is home to the University Community branch.

I haven't been able to get an exact date on when the University Community branch opened, but I would definitely date around the 1960s or 70s, which is when many of the homes in University City were built. As with many branches, the library also serves as a community center for the area. It's a medium sized branch, and has a separate meeting room and children's area from its main center stacks and computers.

 

North Clairemont

Second only to North Park, the North Clairemont branch is one of the oldest libraries in the SDPL system that I've visited over the course of this blog. Opened in 1962, the exterior of the branch is very reminiscent of the time period, with Googie style architecture and a roof designed to look like it's floating above the building. The library was designed by San Diego architect Robert J. Platt, who also designed the current Oak Park and San Carlos branch libraries in addition to numerous residences and businesses in throughout San Diego. Accordingly, the North Clairemont branch has a similar size and organization to the Oak Park and San Carlos branches; it's around 4,000 square feet, maybe a bit less, and every part of the branch is in one main room.

Entrance and Roof of Library (photo from Roadarch.com)

While small, the library doesn't feel cramped, and is well kept despite its age. All of the main stacks are in the back left part of the building, while the right side has computer and seating areas.

Clairemont neighborhood of San Diego began to develop to its current form in the 1950s as a postwar planned community. It's primarily a middle-class residential area, inhabited by families and retirees. Clairemont Mesa area covers a very large geographic area, and the neighborhood actually has three different SDPL branches within its borders: North Clairemont, Clairemont, and Balboa.

Skyline Hills

The Skyline Hills Branch, which opened in October of last year, is the newest branch in the system. Like all of the SDPL branches built within the past couple decades, it replaces an older, much smaller branch; the previous Skyline Hills library was built in 1969 and only sized up at around 4,400 square feet, while the new branch is more spacious and obviously in perfect condition. At 15,000 square feet, the branch is a bit smaller than some of the other newer branches, but it layout causes the interior to feel bigger than its size.

The library has a very open feel, with a lot of natural light and spacious reading areas.The building is technically one story, but the ceiling is a little more than two stories high. Many sections of the walls are entirely windows that extend up to the ceiling, and the bookshelves are set perpendicular to these windows to allow light to shine into the building. In fact, the building is essentially lit completely by natural light during the day, which is pretty rare for a building of this size. Because of the ceilings, brightness, and windows, the interior of the northern section branch almost feels like it's outside. Plus, the library also has a pretty large outdoor reading area.

I think that the architecture of the building, along with the earthy tones that serve as the library's color scheme, complement the Skyline Hills and Southeast San Diego areas well. The region has a large population, but its large geographic area yields a relatively low population density compared to pretty much every other neighborhood within San Diego's city limits. In the eastern portion of Southeast San Diego, where the Skyline Hills Branch is located (it's actually the easternmost library not just in Southeast San Diego, but in the entire SDPL system), the hilly terrain, inland microclimate, and amount of undeveloped land give the area a slightly rural feel.

As I discussed in the Logan Heights post, restrictive zoning during the early 20th century yielded segregated neighborhoods in San Diego, leading Southeast San Diego to be home to a majority of the city's non-white residents during that time. Today, the region is still one of the most ethnically diverse in the city. Like many libraries in areas with sizable Latino populations, the Skyline Hills library features a section of materials in Spanish. It also has a section of Filipino materials, a further reflection of the diversity in the area. In fact, according to a 2011 San Diego County estimate, only about 40% of households in Southeast San Diego speak English only as their primary language spoken at home.

Logan Heights

The Logan Heights branch library is a uniquely new building in one of San Diego's historic communities. The present branch opened in 2009, and at 25,000 square feet is a behemoth compared to the original 4,000 square foot Logan Heights branch, opened in 1927 and located around a quarter of a mile from the new branch.

Original Logan Heights Branch Building

Logan Heights is the only branch library located in central San Diego, a region commonly considered to be bound by Balboa Park to the north, the Bay to the West, Southeast San Diego to the east, and National City to the South. Urban and working-class from its beginnings in the early 20th century, the area has one of the highest concentrations of Latino populations in the city, at 89.4% (City of San Diego, 2009). The library certainly serves a reflection of these demographics; there's a large section on the second floor dedicated to materials in Spanish, and most of the signs and directories in the library are written in both languages.

Historically, Logan Heights and Barrio Logan, which is located directly south of Logan Heights, played an important role in the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Barrio Logan is the home of Chicano Park, a center of Latino protests and cultural renaissance in the 1970s. Chicano Park is only a mile from the Logan Heights library, and in one of its final acts in office, the Obama administration designated Chicano Park a National Historic Landmark.

This branch is the largest that I've visited so far. Additionally, if memory serves, it's the only two-story branch that is truly two stories, in the sense that there's no balcony or terrace that connects the two floors. I suspect the design of distinction between the first and second floors was intentional. The first floor has one of the largest children's sections I've seen in a branch, and the building was probably designed to keep the noise level down on the second floor. It makes sense that the branch would have such a large children's area; there's five different elementary and middle schools located within about a half-mile.

Valencia Park/Malcolm X

Officially known as the Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch Library & Performing Arts Center, this branch was built in 1996. The library is located in Valencia Park, a neighborhood in Southeast San Diego. It's the first branch I've visited so far from that region, which includes all neighborhoods in San Diego's city limits that are south of the 94 freeway (with the exception of Otay Mesa and San Ysidro, which border Tijuana and are geographically disconnected from the rest of the city proper).

Every branch in the SDPL system has a unique feel, but I genuinely think that this branch is one of the most distinct. I was unable to find the square footage of the branch, but it's among the largest I've been to so far. The size is kind of underscored by the fact that it has a spread out/open layout, which is a rarity for many other branches that create divisions between different areas using shelves. One of the things I dislike about larger branches is that they can often feel like mazes. However, in the Valencia Park/Malcolm X Branch, most of the library is visible from most viewpoints in the building. The advantage to this openness is that the library feels much more relaxed than do some other branches, but the downside it's that it's harder to find secluded desks or nooks to study in, if that's what you're looking for in a library. Another unique aspect is that the library generally seems to be less busy and thus quieter than other branches. Of course, I've only visited twice, once on a weekend afternoon and once on a weekday morning, and the branch serves a large geographic area, so it's difficult to know if I've seen an accurate depiction.

The collection of books is pretty large, but not comparatively so for other branches of its size. In turn, though, there's a lot of seating and table space available. Like most libraries of its size, the branch is two stories with the second being a balcony that overlooks the first, but the second floor feels more like a stage overlooking the first floor than it does a separate terrace. It's probably about 6 or 7 feet above the first floor instead of the typical 10-12, and accordingly there's no accessible floor space underneath it, with the walls serving as shelves or desk space. There's also kind of mid-level between the first and second floors, connected to them by ramps, that has desktop computers.

This picture is from Yelp, but it gives a nice feel of the layout. This is the center of the library, with the second level straight ahead, a computer section in the center, and the circulation desk to the back of the person who took the picture.

University Heights

After visiting the North Park library, I figured it would be worthwhile to visit the University Heights branch as well. After all, they're the two branches in closest proximity to each other, sitting only a mile and a half apart.

University Heights, like North Park, grew in population with the development of Balboa Park in the early 20th century, and it today has a nice balance between a residential and urban/commercial feel. The area itself is smaller than North Park, and is bordered by canyons on its North and West sides. This relative seclusion give it a more quiet feel than many of the other neighborhoods in the Mid-City area.

The University Heights branch, built in the mid 60s, is slightly younger than the North Park branch. It's very small (I was unable to find an exact number, but I'd guess around 3,000 sq ft), and it almost has the feel of an old bungalow, with a dark interior and comfortable feel. Despite its size, the branch has a surprisingly large collection of books and especially CDs. Overall, I'd recommend visiting it if you're looking for a library in a convenient location, but not if you're looking for a quiet or secluded space to work or study.

North Park

I've been to the North Park branch library many times, and it's generally one of the busiest branches I've been to so far, especially in the afternoons. Located just a couple blocks off of University Avenue, the library has a fairly convenient location for anyone living in the Mid City area, and it's proximity to the 805 Freeway mean that thousands of people pass by it every day.

The 8,000 square foot structure was originally constructed in 1959, and while it has a sort of 60s architectural feel, neither the exterior or interior of the building seem in any way outdated. The branch is one of the libraries on the city's docket to be replaced with a bigger structure, but no concrete plans for that building or its location are in the works.

The library has a single-room layout, but different parts of the library are divided by tall bookshelves, and the somewhat irregular shape of the building creates lots of quiet and isolated nooks for reading or studying.



Around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, North Park began to be developed as a suburban community residing, as its name suggests, north of Balboa Park. San Diego hosted two World's Fairs at Balboa Park in the 20th century: the Panama-California Exposition in 1915,  and the California Pacific International Exposition twenty years later. By the 1950s, when the North Park library was founded and many small businesses popped up in the area, the neighborhood began to take on a more urban feel. Today, North Park is a diverse place, with microbreweries, restaurants, coffee shops, corner stores, and apartment complexes just blocks away from old Craftsman-style homes and public parks.

Update

Hello,

I hope anyone who may be reading this post had a nice holiday season. I apologize that it's been so long since last posting. I got busy with academic work and then left town for the holidays, so I haven't been able to visit any libraries in the past few weeks. That'll change, though, in the coming months. It certainly needs to; I've visited 14 SDPL libraries so far, so I have 21 to go in order to make my goal of visiting all 35 within a year.

Please check back on this blog at least a couple times a month, because new content is definitely coming soon. Thanks so much for reading!

Linda Vista

The Linda Vista Branch library is a mid-sized branch in the SDPL system, constructed in 1987.

Geographically, Linda Vista is essentially the heart of the City of San Diego, and several signs marking its boundaries highlight this distinction. Metaphorically, the diversity of the community also is representative of San Diego. Developed in the 1940s as a center of housing for military personnel and factory workers during World War II, it's now a primarily residential neighborhood, home to several elementary and secondary schools as well as the University of San Diego.

The library has as diverse a collection of materials in Asian languages as I've seen thus far, featuring books in Chinese, Vietnamese, Lao, and more. As you'd expect, this diversity is an apt reflection of the diversity of Linda Vista itself. The community has a large population of immigrants from Southeast Asia. In fact, the book The Gangster We Are All Looking For, by Le Thi Diem Thuy, which chronicles the experiences of a Vietnamese family seeking refuge in the United States during the Vietname war, is actually set in the Linda Vista. The book was selected by One Book One San Diego in 2011, a project run by SDPL that selects one novel each year for San Diegans to read, and then hosts events related to the book, including discussions and talks by the author.

Harold Washington Library (Chicago)

Last week, I had the chance to visit family in Chicago for the Thanksgiving holiday. Serving the third largest city in the United States, the Chicago Public Library system is one of the largest public collections in the country at over 5.7 volumes. It consists of the Harold Washington Library Center and 79 other branches spread throughout the city. I decided to visit Harold Washington, the central library of the system located in the south loop in downtown Chicago.

In 1987, Chicago Mayor Harold Washington approved funding of a new central library project. Construction began a year later, and the library opened its doors to the public in 1991. Named after the first African-American mayor of the city, Harold Washington Library is has 10 floors, and even after several hours I was only able to see a small section of the building.

It was interesting seeing how the climate of Chicago compared to that of San Diego has shaped the architecture of each library's architecture. The Harold Washington library is much more self-contained; it's all in one big rectangular building that takes up an entire city block, and it's well insulated but doesn't have much natural light throughout the building. Conversely, the Central Library in San Diego has a much more open feel, with different balconies and terraces and several buildings combined into one large library complex.

What holds constant, however, is that both these libraries are some of the largest public libraries in the country, fairly new, extremely nice, and play an fundamental role in their communities.

Rancho Bernardo

Of the five-ish months that I've been working on this project, I'd yet to visit a library in North County. I figured I'd remedy that imbalance by making the trip up to the Rancho Bernardo branch library, the farthest north of any library in the system, and the longest distance from the Central Library downtown (around 25 miles as the car drives). Such is the nature of Rancho Bernardo-- it's large, sprawling, upscale, but somewhat geographically isolated, the northern-most community with San Diego's city limits.

This isolation was intended; Rancho Bernardo began to take shape in the 1960s as a planned community. The community largely white collar and upper middle class, inhabited by families. A lot of investment in made in Rancho Bernardo's public facilities, and the library branch is no exception.

Stacks

Study Spaces

Outside of the Central Library, this branch has been my favorite one to visit so far. For one thing, it's a pleasure to just look at and be in. The earthy tones of the library complement the geography of the area well, and the walls of windows and tall ceilings give the building a bright yet relaxed feel. Also, despite the library's size and amount of patrons (it's one of the busiest in the system), it's very quiet, at least on a Saturday morning when I visited. It has a lot of individual cubicles and work tables, and as large a collection of books, magazines, CDs, and other media as any branch in the system. The library also has a second floor with several meeting rooms, making it one of the most popular locations for SDPL meetings and events.

North County is home to a majority of San Diego's tech and pharmaceutical companies, and the library kind of gave me the feel of an upscale office building or research institute. A lot of this feel can be attributed to its sheer size; at almost 23,000 sq ft, it's one of the largest branches in the system. It's also one of the newest, built in 1996. Overall, I highly recommend visiting the branch, even if it is a bit out of the way. 

Seating Area leading to Courtyard

View from 2nd Floor

San Carlos

The San Carlos branch library sits at around 8,000 sq. ft and was built in the mid 1970s.

Entrance

The branch is actually the eastern-most library in the SDPL system (with the exception of the new Skyline Hills branch, set to open this month), and the geographical location of San Carlos reflects its terrain. The neighborhood is home to the Lake Murray reservoir, one of the most popular destinations in the county for fishing, kayaking, birdwatching, running, cycling, and other recreation. The library is also located less than a third of a mile from the trail head of Cowles Mountain. The summit of Cowles, at an elevation of 1,593 feet, is the highest point in the city of San Diego.

Stacks

The library has the standard architecture and layout of one of the older branches. It's self-contained in one large room, with seating and computers in the center and the children's' area, stacks, and the circulation desk on the periphery.

Announcement: New Skyline Hills Branch Opening

The City of San Diego has announced on its website that the new Skyline Hills branch library will be celebrating its grand opening on Friday, October 14th. The library will be hosting a community celebration of the opening on noon of that day, and tours of the new building will be offered.

Mayor Kevin Faulconer, SDPL Director Misty Jones, and other San Diego officials broke ground on the new library almost exactly a year ago:

 The library is the first new branch built in San Diego since 2009.

Tierrasanta

The Tierrasanta Branch library is located in the Tierrasanta neighborhood, a residential suburb of around 30,000 residents. Signs in the area refer to the neighborhood as "an island in the hills," an description that's not inaccurate; the area is secluded, surrounded by canyons on all sides except the west.

Front of the Library

The library is similar to many of the small branches in the SDPL system. It's one main room with the staff desk near the entrance, the computers and main seating areas in the center, a children's section on the side, and the stacks in the back of the library.

Stacks

The library reminds me a lot of the neighborhood itself-- small, quiet, secluded, and has kind of an Earthy feel. Tierrasanta overall has kind of a small town, Middle America feel, something a lot of neighborhoods in San Diego don’t really have. It's middle class, there’s no effects of tourism, it’s somewhat isolated like I said, it has one library, one community center, one rec center, one library, one high school, things like that. Something that I've learned over the course of this blog is that every branch, even if only subtly, really reflects the area that it's set in. The Tierrasanta branch is no exception.

Stacks

Serra Mesa- Kearny Mesa

One of the newest and nicest libraries in all of San Diego, the Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa branch opened in late 2006. The library has a collection of over 50,000 items, including books and other media, and it holds a computer lab of 40 computers available for public use. The 16,000 sq ft branch, now almost ten years old, is more than three times the size of the old library Serra Mesa branch that it replaced.

Entrance

The library also houses an office for the the San Diego Workforce Partnership's Metro Career Center. The center offers numerous resources both online and in-person for job searching, such as job boards and job search workshops.

Stacks

The library is located on Aero Drive, a major east-west road that essentially extends between the 163 and 15 freeways. The road also essentially serves as the border between Kearny Mesa to the north and Serra Mesa to the south. Kearny Mesa is primarily a commercial area, home to many retail centers, office parks, government agencies, and the Montgomery Field airport. Serra Mesa, to the south of Aero Drive, is much more residential, home to around 24,000 San Diegans. Check out the aerial photo below and notice the airport to the north, homes to the south, and the library (circled in red).

Aero Drive

Mission Valley

The Mission Valley library is one of the newer and larger branches in the system, built in 2002 and sitting at around 20,000 sq. ft. Due to its central location in Mission Valley, its proximity to a trolley stop and major retail stores, its ample amount of space, and its large collection of books, computers, and other resources, this library is probably the busiest branch in the SDPL system that I have visited so far, not including the Central Library.

View from the Stairs to the 2nd Floor

I visited on a Tuesday, and I can only imagine how busy the library is on weekends. Nevertheless, the size of the library and the many different rooms and patios extending off of the main room provide ample quiet and secluded spaces. The architectural structure of the building is similar to that of the City Heights branch in that the library consists of one large room with a tall ceiling and a terrace at the back of the library that overlooks the main floor.

View from the 2nd Floor Balcony

The second floor also has a nice covered outdoor seating area.

Outside Seating on the 2nd Floor

Mission Valley is an interesting part of the city. It's certainly not what would be considered a traditional "neighborhood," although there are an increasing amount of apartment complexes and condos being built in the area. Yet, it's an area where people from all over the county congregate-- it's the location of Qualcomm Stadium, where the Chargers and SDSU Aztecs football team play their home games, it houses two of the biggest malls in the city, Mission Valley and Fashion Valley, and it geographically sits at the heart of the city boundaries. It is easy to see, then, why the SDPL system invested in building a large library in this area.

Stacks