By Ian Thompson | Daily Republic | November 10, 2008
Cassano and Zen Crowder, of Suisun City, read magazines while their son looks for books Monday afternoon at the Suisun City Library. Photo by Brad Zweerink
SUISUN CITY - Five months ago, Suisun City Library lovers packed the front entrance to the new branch and waited for the ribbon to be cut so they could get their first glimpse of the facility.
That love affair between residents and the library is going strong.
'We have been doing incredibly well,' Supervising Librarian Peggy Svoboda said. 'We are busy beyond what we had expected.'
The new library at 601 Pintail Drive is twice the size of the old one on Sunset Avenue and offers more services such as computers, computer training and meeting rooms.
Suisun Elementary School students have access to the library every morning before it opens to the public.
The number of people walking through the front door has doubled since August 2007 when the library was located in leased space on the second floor of an office building at 333 Sunset Ave.
Librarians signed up 371 people for library cards in August at the new branch, double the number of cards that were issued during the same month in 2007.
The number of books, DVDs and other materials checked out has climbed by 50 percent, Svoboda said.
'We used to have a lot of class visits at the end of the year (at the old library site), but now we have class visits every week,' Children's Librarian Julia Oglesby said. 'The kids love it.'
Having more space has allowed librarians to offer more programs such as the recent Halloween celebration that featured story readings, crafts and a haunted house created by local high school students.
'That was a triple win,' Svoboda said. 'It was good for the kids, it was good for the community and it was good for the library. This would not have been possible at the old site.'
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