The East County Library is the newest library in the Multnomah County system.
It officially opened in May, and it’s the most recent renovation in a list of library building or retrofitting projects that the county has taken on since a major library bond project was passed in 2020.
It’s the second largest library in the system — around 95,000 square feet.
Annie Lewis, the director of libraries for Multnomah County, joins us to share more about it.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: If you’re just tuning in, we are coming to you today from the East County Library in Gresham. It’s the newest library in the Multnomah County system, and nearly 100,000 square feet. It is the second largest, second only to the downtown library. Annie Lewis is the director of libraries for Multnomah County, and she joins us now. It’s great to have you on the show.
Annie Lewis: Thank you for having me.
Miller: Over the last few years, so many libraries in the system have been renovated or expanded or refurbished or just fully built from scratch, like this one. How does this new library fit into the system as a whole?
Lewis: East County Library is a major milestone in the overall library capital bond program. When voters approved the bond in November of 2020, one of the promises we made as part of that overall bond measure was to increase square footage library access in East Multnomah County. And so East County Library brings us a really long way to addressing a historical inequity of access to library spaces.
Miller: Right, 40% of Multnomah County residents live east of I-205. What were library resources like in East County before this library was built?
Lewis: East County Library, as you shared, is 95,000 square feet. The prior Gresham Library, which was beloved by the community, was about 26,000 square feet, so this really triples the square footage of access in East County. I would add, too, that the East County Library is not only a library that provides books, but it provides so many amenities that were asked for by the community out here in East County.
Miller: Like what?
Lewis: Yeah, this beautiful auditorium that we’re sitting in here, this is a venue that not only will be used for library programs, but is available to the community to use for performances, lectures, gatherings.
We also have a gorgeous rooftop terrace where folks can see, on a beautiful sunny day, views of Mount Hood. Also, this library has an amazing interactive children’s space where families can hang out. Our community stated that they wanted outdoor spaces, so there’s a really awesome outdoor play space for children and families as well. Many more amenities I can talk about as well.
Miller: I mean, when I think of a library, I’ve had enough conversations with librarians in the last, I don’t know, almost 20 years, to understand the growing philosophy that it’s not just about a place to access books or periodicals or computers, but it’s more a meeting space. But still, a beautiful auditorium like this goes even beyond what I’ve come to think of as a modern life of a library. Why put an auditorium in a library?
Lewis: Well, I think we heard from our community that there’s a need for this type of a space out in East County, and if you think about the types of programming that we can do in this auditorium, it really hits at the core mission of what libraries do. Our mission is empowering our community to learn and create. This is a perfect venue for ongoing learning and connection.
I think the other thing that modern libraries fill in this modern age is this desire by our community to connect and to convene with one another, and spaces like this auditorium allow for that, in addition to the 14 other meeting rooms that we have in this building.
Miller: When you build something, there’s always a leap of faith. You more than quadrupled the square footage here, or nearly quadrupled it, but there was no guarantee people were gonna use it. So what has usage been like in the last few months?
Lewis: Oh my goodness, it has absolutely surpassed any of the estimates that we had. On opening weekend we had over 14,000 people, just across two days, come in. I was looking at some stats.
In the month of May, when we were open for two weeks, we had over 45,000 people visit East County Library. In the month of June, we had 47,000. Also in the month of June, we had 47,000 items checked out, which is kind of incredible, thinking that we have 200,000 items in this library. It’s been overwhelming.
Miller: What has it been like? What’s it been like to see that, to see people responding to a new space and using it as intended?
Lewis: It’s amazing. I was talking to somebody, we had an event here last month, I think the State of the City actually, and somebody, a Gresham resident, told me this is the library Gresham needed that didn’t know it needed it, and just to see people who maybe haven’t been in a library in years coming in to use it – not only to check out books but also just like, hang out. We have a gorgeous teen space and I will tell you that place is hopping. It is so busy, and we have this gorgeous living room, for people who haven’t been here, the center of East County Library, we call it the living room, and you can just see the mass timber and get the sense that you’re really in the Pacific Northwest by looking at the artwork and the overall lighting and design.
Miller: Annie Lewis, thanks very much.
Lewis: Yeah, thank you so much.
Miller: Annie Lewis is the director of libraries here in Multnomah County.
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