Sunland-Tujunga : New Branch Library to Open Saturday

The long-awaited new Sunland-Tujunga Branch Public Library will open for business Saturday at 7771 Foothill Blvd.

The 10,500-square-foot facility was built on the site of the former library. That building, constructed in 1952, was about 4,500 square feet and was “just too small to meet the needs of the community,” a Los Angeles city library official said.

“There aren’t a lot of other libraries nearby, and this was more than overdue,” said Fontaine Holmes, director of branches for the city’s library department.

The new building cost $2.8 million and was paid for with voter-approved funds from the 1989 Library Bond Issue. The facility has room for an estimated 75,000 volumes, an increase over the old library’s stock of about 45,000 books. The building also features a community room and 11 personal computers that will soon offer Internet access.

An old oak tree was used as the focal point of the project’s public arts component, library officials said. Surrounding the tree is a quartzite-paved plaza that leads to the main entrance. In the shade of the tree is a two-sided exterior bench of hand-painted tile.

Attending Saturday’s grand opening ceremony at 1:30 p.m. will be Councilman Joel Wachs, city Librarian Susan Goldberg Kent and Vivien Fiedler, the branch’s new senior librarian.

Fiedler was senior librarian at Ascot Branch Library for the past five years.