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Update: New Library’s Grand Opening Date Set

The Cielo Vista Branch of the El Paso Public Library is set to open in three weeks.

Crews are still moving boxes of books, unrolling rugs, and plugging in computers in anticipation of opening day.

The $2 million facility is a green building, with its natural lighting and energy efficient fixtures. It’s a far cry from the dimly lit, low-ceiling corner of a building the library inhabited up until the summer of 2007.

“The atmosphere here is just wonderful,” said John Sandstrom, branch manager at the Cielo Vista Library. “It’s a great place to be, a great place to come and hang out.”

It’s also chock full of technology; Sandstrom told ABC-7 it offers free wireless service, rents out laptop computers for library use, and provides access to printers.

“We spend more and more of our budget every year going for online databases, downloadable books, downloadable video, and all of these other new formats that are not commonly available outside of the library,” Sandstrom said.

That splurge in technology is a way for the library to stay relevant in a society that spends more time in front of a television or computer screen than with books.

“You can get a lot of information online and from your smart phones; you can’t get it all,” Sandstrom said. “There are some things out there that just aren’t online yet. They haven’t digitized all the books, by any stretch of the imagination.”

Sandstrom said the staff is still working out the community events schedule, but he hopes to start offering activities for kids and adults alike.

“I’m hoping to have a regular family movie night on Wednesdays. That’s the tentative schedule at this point. We’ll have themed movies every week. And with a December opening we’re looking at starting out with some Christmas movies.”

The Cielo Vista library is located at 1300 Hawkins Blvd. A grand opening celebration is scheduled on Dec. 11.

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