Community Corner

Arlington Community Celebrates New Library Opening

What was once a reading room is now the Arlington Branch of the Cranston Public Library, thanks to a major renovation.

A vision for a genuine branch of the Cranston Public Library for the Arlington neighborhood has been brewing for years.

That vision came to fruition recently with the opening of the new Arlington Branch after a months-long renovation that has transformed a humble "reading room" into a small but spacious hub of knowledge, learning and connectedness.

And at a ceremony on Monday, as Cranston's mayor, a Senator and a Congressman extolled the virtues of the new library and libraries in general, the spirit of late Edward Costa was smiling from above.

Costa was a member of the Library Board of Trustees who is credited with being the key driving force behind the library's evolution into a full branch. His widow, Roberta, was on hand for the ceremony.

The new branch is bright, airy and inviting. For the first time, it has doors that open to both the street and the Cranston Senior Center in which it is housed.

The design called for reconfiguring the interior space the library shares with the RSVP, a volunteer-run gift shop, to make a more cohesive whole. The library is a bit larger and shelf space is split with adult titles on one side opposite children's books on the other. A cozy lobby and reading area is accessible through an inside door that leads to another door to the senior center. In this nook, the library will help local children with homework and studying in addition to giving library patrons a place to read.

In the center of the room are four computer workstations. The computers "are the newest computers in the entire Cranston Library System," said Library Director Ed Garcia. 

The new library also includes a WiFi router that can be used by both library and senior center users. 

And the collection, although limited due to size, will for the first time have all new bestselling releases and materials for children and teens, Garcia said.

With cooperation between the senior center, mayor's office and the library staff, "we were able to achieve a library that can help serve seniors at the center as well as the neighborhood at large," Garcia said. 

Garcia said the support from Congressman Jim Langevin, Senator Jack Reed and Cranston Mayor Allan W. Fung were instrumental in getting the job done. 

Both Langevin and Reed are advocates for the Library Services and Technology Act — the only federal program to help our libraries, Reed said.

"We are here because this is an issue that is so critical," Reed said. "Libraries aren't just about books. They're about connections to the rest of the world."

Reed recalled growing up and as a young boy, walking up the steps of the Auburn Library for the first time in the 1950s.

"I found a whole world of information and ideas," he said. "Without that, I would not have been able to move forward in life."

Langevin said libraries have been a focal point for knowledge and ideas for eons. Today, "libraries are a great equalizer," he said. At a library, everyone has the same access to the same books, the same ideas, the same periodicals. 

Fung said the late Ed Costa was talking about having an Arlington branch for years and "I know he's looking down watching us, beaming with pride with the fact we will be able to help so many people in the community."

Thought the Arlington Branch is all-new, its origins most certainly are not.

"We've come a long way since 1895 when the Arlington library opened in the neighborhood with 500 volumes," Reed said. "We've come to the information age, the age of instant communication, and that is what has made libraries more important, not less important."

"Now, libraries are a place where you can get a job, communicate across the world, be a part of a larger community, not just of ideas but society," Reed said. "It is critical that every person in this state has great access to libraries."


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