Cerritos Millennium Library
The Cerritos Library, the New Cerritos Library, or the Cerritos Public Library is the civic library for the City of Cerritos, California. It was rededicated on March 16, 2002, with the new moniker and the current futuristic design. It was the first building to feature an exterior clad with titanium panels in the United States. It boasts to be the first "Experience Library" and focuses on themed spaces, high quality artwork, and inspirational architecture rather than being another library in the traditional sense.
During Cerritos' period of rapid growth in the 1970s, a series of high-profile developments, including a new library, was planned. Debate whether or not to join the County of Los Angeles Public Library system and share a branch with neighboring Artesia or to create a separate facility persisted early on. In the end, with the help of various associations such as the Friends of the Cerritos Library and the then-city manager (who wanted to save the residents from a $20-a-year library tax), the city decided to build its own municipal library.
On the corner of Bloomfield and 183rd Street, on the site of a former strawberry field, the initial groundbreaking for the Cerritos Library took place in June 1972. The building would be the first building added to the Cerritos Civic Center and was dedicated on October 13, 1973 in honor of Cerritos native, First Lady Patricia Nixon and all other First Ladies both past and present. The site was designed by local contractor AJ Padelford & Son using blueprints from architect Maurice Fleishman, AIA.
The Cerritos Library at the time was 18,000 square feet (1,700 m2) and housed 45,000 books as well as the latest technology (16-mm sound films and projectors, 16 mm microfilm cartridges, record players with headphones, electric typewriters, and copy machines). In addition, the library also had a children's area, theater and law library. Three years later, Cerritos joined the Metropolitan Cooperative Library System, giving patrons access to more than 3 million items at 26 member libraries and interlibrary loans. From the beginning, the seven-day-a-week schedule was popular. [1]
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