Dave Schwab | Downtown News

Libraries used to be in schools. Now schools are in libraries.

A case in point: e3 Civic High (e3CH), a charter high school opening in September 2013, will occupy the 6th and 7th floors of San Diego’s new Downtown library opening late this summer.

A school within a library is just one of many “firsts” for the city’s new domed $184.9 million Central Library near Petco Park, which will be nearly triple the size of the existing 57-year-old facility at 820 E. St.

“This will be a literary marvel, one of the first schools in the nation to co-exist with a library, providing access to more than one million resources,” said Dr. Helen Griffith, executive director of the new high school, which will initially serve 250 students mostly from Downtown in grades 9 and 10.

Dr. Griffith said plans for the new school have it expanding over the next five years to include grades 11-12 and doubling its student population to 500.

“A study done in the Downtown area in 2010 revealed a need, not only for more schools, but high-performing schools in the Downtown community,” Griffith said adding, “We are trying to capture students in or near Downtown in a five-mile radius.”

High-performing schools, she said, are identified through student performance on state exams.

“The hope for this school is to provide college- and career-ready high-performance education using technological tools available through the library to accelerate and advance learning,” Griffith said.

She added that e3CH will be partnering with a number of other educational institutions, including City College, SDSU, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and Point Loma Nazarene University, to provide tutoring and mentoring for its students.

“Learning for students will be self-paced, setting targets for growth in a content-based curriculum,” Griffith said.

Fundraising to support the Central Library facility, currently under construction at 395 11th Ave. in the East Village area of Downtown, has exceeded expectations. To date, more than 2,000 donors citywide have purchased 2,000-plus commemorative bricks offered through the San Diego Public Library Foundation’s “Buy-A-Brick” campaign.

“We are now over our projected numbers, both amount of bricks – more than 2,300 – and total giving – more than $500,000,” said Charlie Goldberg, San Diego Library Foundation’s marketing director.

Goldberg said the intent was to create “a library for the entire community supported by everyone, not just those who can make large donations.”

“[The new library] is clearly the most visible project, but we’re [also] involved in helping fund new building or expansion of seven branch libraries,” Goldberg added, noting the Foundation’s role is to “fill gaps.”

“Where funding can help, that happens, so we can help make a difference in those areas,” said Goldberg.

The deadline to purchase bricks to be included in the library opening is May 15.

Supplying all the latest technological advancements, San Diego’s new Downtown Central Library will cater to everyone in the community, while providing age-specific areas addressing the special needs of particular user groups like children and teens.

“We did a needs assessment [with] the community and they told us they wanted a big children’s room, a bigger teen space, a homework center and a gallery for adults and meeting areas,” said library youth services coordinator Marina Claudio-Perez. “We do have all these age-specific areas,” she said, adding “we’re pushing for inclusive services for all children – all cultures, all languages.”

Claudio-Perez said the Dr. Seuss-themed Sanford Children’s Library for ages 6-12 will be divided into two sections for younger and older children, taking up 10,000 square feet of the library’s first floor. She said the it will also include such innovative features as a nursing room and stroller area for mothers.

“We want this to be the destination for families,” she said.

The teen center will take up nearly 3,000 square feet on the library’s second floor, according to Claudio-Perez. “Downtown has very limited space for teenagers who don’t really feel comfortable, safe and welcome,” she said. “Our teen space will answer that need.”

The youth services coordinator said the teen area geared for ages 13-18 will have a beach theme and include a game room with piped-in music and a homework center.

“For some kids technology access can only be found at their local library, so we’re giving them that, both for school and also as entertainment,” Claudio-Perez said.

San Diego’s new cutting-edge Central Library is a prototype supplying all the latest technological advancements.

“Facilitating technology, helping us bridge the digital divide, that’s part of our mission,” said Marion Moss Hubbard, San Diego Library’s senior public information officer.

Moss Hubbard said the nine-floor Central Library’s innovations will include an array of more than 400 computer devices of all types. The library will have disabled access, a 350-seat, state-of-the-art theater auditorium and fiber optics providing high-bandwidth transmissions facilitating high-speed Internet.

“The new Central Library will be one of the most progressive in the country in terms of its access to information and the technology that we will have,” Moss Hubbard said. “We also will function as the region’s repository for government documents.”

The new library will employ a number of other progressive developments. A conveyor belt running from the book drop through the children’s section will streamline service.

Moss Hubbard also said there will be new entertaining and engaging components like a video wall providing a multi-angle, 3-D multi-sensory experience “to grab the visitor’s attention when they come in the door” letting them know they’re “entering a technology library of the future.”

Among the library’s many technological innovations:

• Apps like “Boopsie,” giving patrons one-click access to databases and Google Indoor Maps providing GPS-based indoor floor plans providing a virtual directory of library services available.
• Hundreds of available digital devices including workstations, Kindle and Sony eReaders, Chromebooks, iPads, iPad Minis and other mobile devices.
• Six study rooms (four persons and larger) with computer-ready TVs.
• A City TV Media production studio including green screens, video editing and musical recording, webcasting and web publishing, as well as a learning lab on multimedia production for students.
• Early literary stations providing digital technology to engage children ages 2-8.
• Energy-efficient design and components, like lights turning off automatically with sufficient natural light, allowing the city to pursue a LEED Silver Status for the library and making it a model public building for sustainability.

For more information about the new Downtown Central Library and all its components, visit e3civichigh.com, supportmylibary.org, or sandiego.gov/publiclibrary.

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles on the new Central Library by Dave Schwab. The first, “A new library for a new age” ran in Vol. 14, Issue 2.

Dave Schwab came to San Diego 30 years ago with a journalism degree from Michigan State University. He has worked for numerous dailies and weeklies and now freelances for a variety of regional publications. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, hiking, sports, and spending time with friends. He can be reached at [email protected]