Cedar Rapids readers walked into the new Busse Branch for the first time on Saturday, Sept. 19. The southwest-side library opened with shelves stocked after staff and volunteers spent six weeks moving more than 50,000 books and other items, KCRG reported from the grand opening.
The branch replaces the Ladd Library and gives the city a 40,000-square-foot public library at 1845 Sandberg Lane SW. The Cedar Rapids Public Library describes a dedicated children’s library and programming room, a young-adult area, 11 study rooms and expanded meeting space. Its June announcement invited the public to a Sept. 19 celebration with remarks, a ribbon cutting, activities, refreshments and tours, and said the branch would remain open until 5 p.m. Regular hours were to begin the next day. KCRG and the Corridor Business Journal later reported that the branch welcomed visitors that day.
A new library to explore
One young visitor told KCRG she had watched the building take shape whenever her family drove past. On opening day, she came with her family to see the finished branch. Her father said they had rarely visited Ladd because it offered less than the downtown library, and that the closer location would make them more likely to visit. The change is practical: a neighborhood branch brings books and library spaces nearer to families on the southwest side.
Other children at the opening spoke to KCRG about what they liked in libraries, including imagination and having a quiet place to read. Their comments echoed the spaces the new branch sets aside for young readers and teens. The library’s children’s area includes a programming room, while the young-adult section gives teens a designated area. Visitors can also reserve one of the 11 study rooms.
More room for the community
The branch offers nearly twice the collection and meeting-room space previously available on the west side, the Corridor Business Journal reported. Along with expanded meeting space, the building has a drive-up book return, a holds pickup window and expanded technology space. The official opening announcement also described two courtyards with seating and views toward the city’s planned Allsop Park.
Library space can connect people with more than books. Corridor Business Journal reported that community partner Monica Miranda came to the library to learn English and later attended parenting and craft classes there. She described the library as a bridge between where she had been, where she was then, and where she hoped to go. Her experience shows how library programs and services can become part of people’s lives over time.
The new branch also includes an Opportunity Center partnership involving the library, Kirkwood Community College, United Way of East Central Iowa and Hawkeye Area Community Action Program. City Manager Jeff Pomeranz told the Journal that the center is intended to connect people’s education and career goals with employment opportunities. That gives the branch a role alongside its reading and study spaces.
A place to keep growing
Hundreds of residents attended the Sept. 19 grand opening and ribbon cutting despite rain, according to the Corridor Business Journal. Library Director Dara Schmidt told the gathering that the new building was meant to welcome everyone. Linn County Supervisor Kirsten Running-Marquardt recalled getting her first library card as a child and said she looked forward to the children who would receive theirs at Busse.
Some nearby features are still in development. The Journal reported that the city’s adjacent Allsop Park is in its early stages. The official library announcement describes the Bloomhall Discovery Garden as an outdoor reading room, classroom, discovery nooks and native plantings. Those spaces remain part of future work; the library itself opened to the public on Sept. 19.
For families on Cedar Rapids’ southwest side, opening day made a new library part of the neighborhood. The branch combines children’s and young-adult spaces, study rooms, meeting areas and a larger collection in a building close enough that one family expects to return more often.
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