Camille Broadway
Community groups can once again meet face-to-face at the county’s libraries starting Tuesday when the Alachua County Library District reopens its meeting rooms to the public.
The spaces have been closed since March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Joyce West, the library district’s public service division director.
The meeting rooms, available at many of the branches, can be reserved in advance, using the library’s online registration system at www.aclib.us/rooms or by calling the individual branch.
From Oct. 1, 2018, to Sept. 30, 2019, community members made more than 12,000 meeting room reservations and almost 50,000 patrons used the rooms during that fiscal year, according to library records.
The library branches also are opening their quiet reading rooms Tuesday. The quiet reading rooms are lounge-style areas where members of the public can sit and read. The quiet reading rooms include copies of newspapers and magazines that patrons can browse, West said.
The library district already opened the study rooms at each of its branches on June 21. Designed for small group work, the study rooms have tables, chairs and white boards. The capacity of the rooms is from 2-8 people with most study rooms seating 2-4 people.
The study rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis. People can see which study rooms are available and how many people each room seats by checking the library’s rooms page (listed above). People who want to use the study rooms can call the branches the day of and reserve a slot.
The meeting rooms, study rooms and quiet reading rooms are all free to the public to use, said Rachel Cook, the district’s public relations and marketing manager.
