Sunrise Library undergoes renovation to better serve patrons

There are 14 Las Vegas-Clark County libraries in the valley serving more than 2 million people. One of the oldest, Sunrise Library, 5400 Harris Ave., recently received a much-needed renovation.

“It’s one of our smaller urban branches,” said Tom Fay, chief operating officer of the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. “It’s less than 25,000 square feet, but it serves 209,000 people and the greatest number of schools: 25.”

The library is the last outpost for books on the east side of the valley. The nearest Las Vegas-Clark County Library District branches are the Whitney Library, 5175 E. Tropicana Ave., and the Las Vegas Library, 833 Las Vegas Blvd. North. That library sees patrons from North Las Vegas and Nellis Air Force Base, which closed its library last year.

“The population the library serves isn’t as mobile as some other areas,” Fay said. “We have a lot of people here who commute by bus. It’s also a Family Place Library that focuses on early literacy, so we wanted to make some major changes for our youth.”

Many of the obvious changes are to the children’s section of the library on the south end of the building. A narrow entrance has been widened, and the wall to the underutilized multipurpose room has been breached, creating a greater flow of foot traffic and light.

“We added a ceiling piece to create a bright welcoming feature to draw people in,” Fay said. “We removed the low-rise stage and opened up backstage storage space to be used for a story room. If need be, we can bring in chairs and show movies or have performances, but now the space is being used all the time, not just for special events.”

The flexibility is emblematic of the renovations. Much of the furniture is on wheels or otherwise easy to move. The youth services desk sits between the new and old section of the children’s library, and instead of a cumbersome desktop computer, the librarians work from a tablet, which they can carry with them into the book aisles. Banks of laptop computers are available for use, and the library has a homework assistance program staffed by volunteer teens.

“The changes have been great,” said youth services department head Shana Harrington. “Everyone loves the look, and we’ve got more people using the library. We had a story time the other day that had 120 kids, and that’s not that unusual now.”

The decorations include letters, colors and numbers to help preschoolers familiarize themselves with new concepts.

Less obvious changes were done in other parts of the library, opening up spaces and letting more light into the building. Fay hopes to continue upgrading the rest of the building but said the facility started with the youth library to serve the needs of the community. He said he is delighted with the results.

“These new double chairs are great,” he said. “The first week we had them, we had four sets of kids sitting together with books stacked up on each arm. They were just going through the books. It was exactly what we’d hoped for.”

Contact East Valley View reporter F. Andrew Taylor at ataylor@viewnews.com or 702-380-4532.