Beechview Carnegie Library Reopens After Extensive Renovations

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - A branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has reopened and it's bigger and better than ever.

After being closed for about a year, the Carnegie Library on Broadway Avenue in Beechview reopened.

Community leaders and neighbors of all ages took part in the official ribbon cutting ceremony.

Some of the improvements include a new air-conditioning system, elevator upgrades, and a new information desk.

Plus, there's a new entrance way, higher ceiling, free digital media lab designed for teens and a lot more.

"We put in a lower level where the real children's department, a meeting room for the community, windows in the front, windows in the back," Mary Francis Cooper, of the Carnegie Library, said.

The renovations were desperately needed.

The library has been in the community for almost 50 years and construction wasn't the best because of funding issues.

Library leaders say a lot of the $3.25 million used for the renovations came from private fundraising.

"What it means to a community when you invest it in like this, is that they matter, that their hopes and aspirations are our hopes and aspirations as a library and as a community, all together and I think that's what's so magical about it," Cooper said.

The upgrades also brought the library in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

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