The 45-year-old Escondido Public Library will soon close its doors for a while.
This Saturday is the library’s last day of operation before it undergoes some significant infrastructure repairs for roof leaks, HVAC system failures and an aging interior.
“The main changes will be to restrooms for ADA (Americans With Disabilities) compliance (and) new lighting, so we’ll brighten up the space. We’re going to reconfigure some of the area on the first floor to make it more people friendly,” said Escondido Public Library Director Rino Landa.
For the next month there will be some limited services offered next door at the Pioneer Room.
And in late May, it's scheduled to reopen on a temporary basis in an unconventional space: the first floor of the North County Mall.
“So we have probably close to 150,000 items that will be moved,” Landa said.
Those are items like books, DVDs, magazines, computers and more.
Friends of the Escondido Library volunteers Georgia Chonko and Amy Brown said they need book donations to continue at the mall to fund library programs.
They agree the benefits of the library upgrades outweigh the inconveniences of the move.
“Well it'll be bigger and better and more climate controlled,” Chonko said.
So for now, it's a two-for-one deal: North County residents can go shopping and borrow a library book, all at the same place in Escondido.
“We are going to offer as much as we can,” Landa said. “There is going to be some shrinkage because we're going from about a 40,000 square foot down to around 15,000 square feet spread across two primary locations and then some staff support areas around the storefronts.”
The project is primarily funded by a $10 million state grant through the California State Library’s Building Forward program.
Construction is expected to last through spring 2026. After that, everything that was moved to the mall will be brought back into the upgraded Escondido Public Library.
