Mark your calendars: Grand opening date set for expanded Wake Forest library

Some good news for library fans in Wake Forest ...

After closing for a major expansion more than a year ago, Wake Forest Community Library will celebrate its reopening with a special ribbon-cutting ceremony at 2 p.m., Feb. 24.

The library closed in September 2017, according to a press release, for the work, which increased its size from 5,000 square feet to 9,000 square feet.

With the additional space, the library will offer additional youth programs, a collection of between 40,000 and 50,000 books and 16 public computers. The project includes more space for youth programming and additional study and reading areas for both kids and adults, the release says. It also will be open, for the first time, for seven days a week.

“The library has always been an important part of this community, and we’re so excited to reopen it,” said Ann Burlingame, deputy director of Wake County Public Libraries, in the release. “This new and improved building will serve library patrons for years to come, and we look forward to making new memories with all of our visitors."

The library sits on a campus that's shared by Kiwanis Park, an EMS station and the Wake County Northern Regional Center. It's half a mile from the town's Renaissance Centre, which regularly hosts family-friendly events; about a mile from the town's new outdoor Holding Park Pool complex; and less than two miles from its newish sprayground.

If they time it right, especially during the summer, families could easily spend a day in Wake Forest, hopping from a storytime at the library, to a swim at the pool (during the summer) to a movie at the Renaissance Centre.

The library is located at 400 E. Holding Dr., Wake Forest.