Over the past ten years, St. Louis County Library has improved and modernized every branch in the district. The final project was tearing down the old headquarters building on Lindbergh and replacing it with a brand new Clark Family Branch.
Sorth says they've learned a lot over the past decade: what works, what doesn't work, what people want. She says they survey patrons every time a new branch opens to get feedback. Time and again people ask for more comfortable seating areas, more natural lighting, and more study rooms.
The Clark Family Branch also has a huge space for teens.
"When we first started the project, teens weren't coming to the library as much as they are now," explains Sorth. "Now we have tons of teens in all of our branches, and a lot of our spaces aren't big enough."
Not only does the Clark branch have space for teens, it has a gaming room and a recording studio complete with musical instruments and a green screen with cinema camera.
The Clark Family Branch also has a huge children's library, an indoor event space that can hold more than 800 people, a business center, podcast room and a Zoom room.
While the event space has already hosted several thousand people with various author events including Darius Rucker and Doris Kearns Goodwin, the library itself won't officially open until July 9th.
