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Tacoma Public Library reopens redesigned main branch with community hub and maker spaces
Summary
Tacoma Public Library described a multi-year renovation intended to shift services to the first floor, add maker spaces and a community hub with four partners on the second floor to provide programs and services, emphasizing family spaces and digital/media labs.
Speakers interviewed for a TV Tacoma segment described the Tacoma Public Library’s redesign of its main branch as a multi-year effort to reimagine library spaces around community use, maker services and partner-run programs. The project followed the library’s 2020 strategic plan and community outreach including surveys and focus groups.
The library said it moved core services to the first floor, added a MakerLab suite with digital media and STEM spaces and a digitization “memory lab,” and created a children’s and family area with child-focused computers, tactile learning spaces and family bathrooms. Speakers said the second-floor community hub will host four community partners that are “mission aligned” and will run programs there, enabling more activation of the space than previously possible.
A speaker in the segment framed the changes as part of broader community priorities identified in outreach, emphasizing access, learning, and spaces for people to spend time rather than solely borrow materials.
Ending: The segment encouraged residents to visit the renovated library to use maker resources, community programs and family areas; a specific reopening date was not provided in the segment text.
