A Library Opens in Florida, While Libraries May Close in California

The Daily Commercial, a newspaper in that serves Lake and Sumter Counties in Florida, reports on the opening of the new Cooper Memorial Library, a joint venture between Lake County, Lake-Sumter Community College, and the University of Central Florida. The new library replaces both the community-college library and the downtown public library.

“I don’t think any of the partners could have built such a large facility with all these amenities on their own,” Denise English, the director of library services for the University of Central Florida, said of the $12.7-million, 50,000-square-foot building.

Meanwhile, in California, the Los Angeles Times reports that the University of California at Los Angeles is looking at closing libraries to deal with a budget crisis. The arts library on the Westwood campus, which the Times calls “one of Los Angeles’ largest cultural resources,” may close to make up for a $131-million budget shortfall. The library contains some 270,000 volumes.

“This doesn’t  mean we would stop serving the arts community,” Gary Strong, the  university’s head librarian, told the Times. “We would do this from a different location. The  fact is that we cannot support all of the separate libraries that we currently have.” He is also considering closing the chemistry library.