New Diamond Bar Library getting final touches

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If you think moving to a new house is hard, try moving a public library. Just ask the folks at the Diamond Bar branch of the Los Angeles County Library.

“We figure we’ve moved 85,000 items since we closed the old library at the end of June,” library manager Jesse Lanz said.

The new library is located on the first floor of Diamond Bar’s new city hall on Copley Drive. It’s been a bustling place the past three weeks as contractors finish the construction and library workers stack the shelves full of books, DVDs and CDs.

“The move actually wasn’t too bad,” Lanz said. “We moved everything section by section. The trick to label everything clearly.”

And the Friends of the Library has been working up to the move for 18 years, according to President Rosette Clippinger.

“This is a major accomplishment, now we’ll have adequate space for all our library programs,” she said.

Clippinger said Diamond Bar had outgrown it old library on Grand Avenue. That 9,900-square-foot facility could now longer handle all the traffic.

“We’re a very busy branch. Last fiscal year, we were the eighth busiest in the county with 250,000 visits,” Lanz said. “We faced a lot of challenges in terms of space.”

Parking was at a premium at the old facility, with only 35 parking spaces there. Families often had to park at the nearby shopping center for the popular children’s programs put on by the library.

All that will change at 10 a.m. Saturday, when the new library celebrates its grand opening. Diamond Bar readers will find a facility with 18,000 square feet. And 288 parking spaces.

Read more in Rich Irwin’s story DIAMOND.

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