By Tony de Garate / San Diego Reader / March 25, 2022
At the Ocean Beach library, March 13 marked an occasion no one wanted nor expected to see: the beginning of its third year of complete closure. It’s a status shared by only two other locations (Clairemont, Mountain View/Beckwourth) in the city’s 36-branch system.
Library officials point out that, while the community’s historic, 1928 building at Santa Monica and Sunset Cliffs has been shuttered, services for OBceans have continued. Virtual programming has allowed families to gather around a tablet for storytime and other online services. The old-fashioned phone line has been available for reference requests with a live Ocean Beach librarian that works dependable hours. The book drop accepts returns, 24-7.
And while there is no firm date for the reopening, officials believe light is at the end of the tunnel. The city is in the process of contacting some 145 potential library assistants with final job offers that – fingers crossed – will soon enable Ocean Beach to resume a six-day-per-week schedule, said Misty Jones, city library director, in a phone interview this month.
And while there is no firm date for the reopening, officials believe light is at the end of the tunnel. The city is in the process of contacting some 145 potential library assistants with final job offers that – fingers crossed – will soon enable Ocean Beach to resume a six-day-per-week schedule, said Misty Jones, city library director, in a phone interview this month.
It’s more likely Ocean Beach will open with a two-day schedule, similar to what has been in place at the Serra Mesa-Kearny Mesa Branch. The full schedule will resume once enough employees have been hired, trained and fingerprinted and have passed final background and health checks, Jones said.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you suppose the city figures we in O B are used to “doing without”, library-wise?
What will it take to get us the long promised expansion?
This picture just completely screwed me up. I glanced at it and…looked again. At first I couldn’t figure out what I was looking at, my brain said it didn’t make sense. Then thought what the HELL was the THC content of that homegrown bud I smoked after dinner?
Hope you get the library back to up & running. That’s one thing I’ve always had, a library card. Even before I got my first surfboard.
And PLEASE librarians, stand UP to the censorship and people of OB back THEM up!
sealintheSelkirks
No worries, seal, it was designed by the guy who designed this:
It appears this year’s first event at the OB library has been canceled. A STEAM event – STEAM meaning Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math – entitled, “Trash into Treasure: Creating Plastic Landscapes,” had been scheduled Aug. 9 at 10:30 a.m. Library officials said it would be held on the lawn if the building had not yet opened, but the event has been dropped from the city’s website.