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Hialeah, Florida - Mayor of Hialeah, Julio Robaina, and the City Council celebrated the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of the newly remodeled West E-Library on June 3, 2008 at 7400 W 24 Ave. The e-library, which was the first e-library opened in the City, back in the year 2001, was located in a small room in the first floor of Police Substation Five, counting with a limited amount of books, 2,500 in total, to consult and only nine computers to access the Internet.
Currently, the remodeled e-library is a 6,500 square foot facility located on the second floor of the same Police Substation. It offers 6,000 books and media items and counts with 24 public computers, a study room, a children's area and a story time room. The West E-Library offers different courses and tutoring, such as morning adult citizenship and computer classes, provided by partnership agreement with Hialeah Miami Lakes Adult Center; a computer based reading tutoring, provided by the City's Literacy program for children Mondays through Thursdays from 4-7p.m.
| From left to right, Councilman Jose Caragol, Councilwoman Isis Garcia-Martinez,
Mayor Julio Robaina, Councilman Luis Gonzalez, Council Vice
President Carlos Hernandez and Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz. |
This library was renovated through a $500,000 State Library Construction grant obtained by the City. The Construction Grant was written five years ago, but the actual remodeling began in 2007. This project wouldn't have been possible without the help of many of the City's Departments. The City's Construction and Maintenance Department handled remodeling of the entire second floor, and the Library Division gave input for the layout of the library portion and selected the furnishings, books, etc. In addition, the Education and Community Services, the Police, the Grants and the Information Technology Departments also contributed to this renovation.
Mayor Robaina commented that he realized he needed to remodel and expand this e-library when right at the beginning of 2006, he visited it on a Saturday to hold some meetings thinking he was going to have plenty of room and plenty of space to be able to hold his meetings, "and I remember that there was a long line of people waiting outside to use the computer on a Saturday, and I said to myself, 'we really need to look at how we can expand this.'"
| During the ribbon cutting ceremony, from left to right, Director of Information Technology Department George Brackett, Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz, Councilman Luis Gonzalez, Libraries' Director Diane Diaz, Director of Education & Community Services Department Marla Alpizar, Mayor Julio Robaina, Council Vice President Carlos Hernandez and Councilwoman Isis Garcia-Martinez. |
During the opening, some of the Library's employees wore Disney characters costumes, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Aladdin, Robin Hood and the Beauty, to read stories and talk with the children. The children were having an enchanted time that people could easily read on their happy face expression.
Diane Diaz, the Library Department Director, who is extremely pleased with this renovation and refers to this e-library as her "Big Baby" said that this was a much needed expansion for a "densely populated sector" of the City. "My future plans for the Libraries Department are keeping the book collection up to date and geared to the educational, career and reading interests of the children and adults of this community, bridging the digital divide with computer access and instruction, tutoring and life long learning and a variety of quality cultural and educational programs and events," Diaz expressed.
The Mayor explained that the remodeling of this library is the way of the City of Hialeah to give back to the community. "As you can see, it is a very spacious library; it is a library that will serve thousands of children on a constant basis. This is one of the most dense areas in the City, and to be able to give this benefit to those less fortunate so that that they can have access to the Internet and other services provided by the library is a great accomplishment," he said addressing the audience. "This continues our commitment to education to keep meeting the education needs of the young men and women of this community. It is incredible to be able to provide this here at the West Side. I can only tell you that we are going to continue to add to this, and we are always setting the goals higher and higher."
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