Brooklyn Public Library to Create New Learning Hub

The first of its kind in New York libraries, the state-of-the-art hub is scheduled to open in early 2013.
Brooklyn Public Library to Create New Learning Hub
6/8/2011
Updated:
6/8/2011

NEW YORK—The Brooklyn Public Library has received an injection of $3.3 million to create a technological learning hub that will be the first of its kind in New York’s library systems.

The largest single donation to the Brooklyn Public Library, it will facilitate establishment a new state-of-the-art technological facility—the Leon Levy Information Commons—at the Central Library, announced the library’s Interim Executive Director Linda Johnson on Wednesday.

The facility will feature enhanced database access, bar-style seating for laptops, a wireless training center for information literacy workshops, private study rooms with electronic white boards, and high-end software not usually available on public computers. It is scheduled to open in early 2013.

According to Johnson, only 52 percent of households in Brooklyn have Internet access. The new center will go beyond just supplying free Internet access, she said, to give Brooklynites access to databases that most people do not have access to.

“This is an opportunity for us to take a space in the library that can use a sprucing-up and to make it consistent with the beautiful building we are so lucky to have,” Johnson said. “The library needs to help people learn about new technology. Instead of being dragged to where the customers want to go, we are going to help our patrons figure out how to navigate through a very complicated world of digital information.”

Philanthropist Shelby White, the trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation, donated the money to give back to the borough of her childhood. “This was the library that I went to when I was a kid,” she said. “I have wonderful memories of being able to read here, and being able do research, and being able to feel that I could learn everything if I stayed here long enough. I wanted to change the library because I know the kids coming today need information technology the way I needed books.”

Two separate grants were awarded to the Brooklyn Public Library: one for planning and one for design, construction, and endowment. The foundation has recently contributed to other projects in Brooklyn, including gifts to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and the Prospect Park Alliance.

“In a time when city government simply does not have the resources to do what it had done in the past or would like to do in the future, having private donors like Shelby White and the Leon Levy Foundation is more important than ever,” commented Mayor Michael Bloomberg during the press conference announcing the groundbreaking of the information commons. This venture is a great way to remember the spirit of Leon Levy, he added.

The Brooklyn Public Library is an independent library system. It is the fifth-largest library system in the United States, with 60 neighborhood libraries around Brooklyn. Brooklyn’s Central Library counts one million visitors a year.