The new Rudisill Regional Library is now open.
Members of the Tulsa City-County Library Commission, elected officials and community members celebrated the reopening Saturday with a ribbon cutting and day full of events at the 33,000-square-foot facility.
The library now sits at 1017 N. Greenwood Ave, in the historic Greenwood District.
“Greenwood has always been a place where people turn ideas into opportunity, where knowledge passed from one generation to the next and where community was a source of strength,” Kimberly Johnson, CEO of the Tulsa City-County Library, said ahead of the ribbon cutting. “What an incredible place for a public library to call home.”
Rudisill now features a maker space, podcasting studio, event space, outdoor patio, teen center and expanded space for the African American Resource Center.
It also includes pieces by Tulsa artist Dell Chambers that reflect “the history, people and spirit of Greenwood” and artifacts discovered during the construction of the new site.
Keith Jemison, regional manager of Rudisill, told The Eagle he started his career shelving books and working under Freddie Rudisill — the first branch manager. Following the ribbon cutting, Jemison said he was “very much on cloud nine.”
“I’m ecstatic. I feel very much connected to the ancestors, previous librarians and everyone who has used the library and what it has meant in their lives,” he said. “Bring your little ones and let them have that lifetime experience here. There’s something for everyone.”
TCCL ceased regular operations at the former site in June. Rudisill is one of several libraries the agency has relocated and expanded in the past year through their MY Library, OUR Future capital campaign. Library officials said they raised nearly $54 million for all four projects.
The other libraries included in the campaign were the Bronson Brookside Library in Tulsa which reopened last year and the William K. and Natalie O. Warren Library which will replace the existing South Broken Arrow library and the Eddy Gibbs Library in Owasso which is still under construction.
“When we began the My Library, Our Future building projects, we knew we weren’t simply building four new libraries,” Johnson continued. A library, she added, “must do more than provide books and technology.”
Johnson said libraries must reflect characteristics of the communities they’re in. “It must be a bridge between generations and a doorway to opportunity. Those were our guiding principles.”
Rudisill is open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday and 1 to 5:00 pm on Sunday.
