Few libraries celebrate an opening day quite like the new West Las Vegas Library branch did on December 9.
Local DJ Tee Wheeze welcomed guests into the lobby to hip-hop throwbacks like Mike Jones’ “Back Then” and DMX’s “Party Up” while a few employees broke it down on an impromptu dance floor. More than 1,000 visitors filed in and grabbed bowls of gumbo before perusing the vast array of sunny reading nooks and technology labs scattered throughout the building’s two stories.
Civil rights activist Ruby Duncan, center, attends the grand opening of the West Las Vegas Library on December 9.
For residents of a resilient Historic Westside neighborhood that served as the home of Las Vegas’ Black community during times of segregation, the joy and optimism was palpable. After 18 months of construction, the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (LVCCLD) was finally unveiling an ambitious 41,000-square-foot, $40 million project that’s poised to become an educational anchor in their community for years to come.
It more than doubles the size of its previous Lake Mead Boulevard home, where it stood for 36 years. And it absolutely dwarfs the branch’s first iteration, which originally opened in a tiny storefront inside a D Street strip mall in 1973.
Earlier that morning, Westside civil rights icon Ruby Duncan cut the ribbon, marking the realization of a dream more than five decades in the making. She once led a group of “welfare mamas” and other activists in a 1971 protest march that shut down the Strip and pushed the state to reverse a decision to cut 75% of their benefits. Two years later, they reunited to lobby Clark County, successfully, to establish that initial D Street branch for the city’s underserved Westside.
Back then, Duncan’s vision helped bring incremental hope to a community that had been losing residents and watching its businesses close following Vegas’ desegregation in the 1960s. There are still only a few parks, grocery stores and medical facilities in the neighborhood today, but the new library marks a major step forward in its ongoing revitalization.
Podcast room
Now 93, Duncan reflected on the fact that many of those mothers didn’t live long enough to see the lasting impact of their legacy in this new branch. But she took solace in knowing they’d be proud to see what became of their efforts.
“This is what we’d wished for back in the ’70s, but I’m so happy now,” she told the Weekly. “We were just regular mothers who wanted our babies to have a library. And they was not all Black, they was welfare mamas from every culture. We all made it happen.”
Standing near a new exterior LED video wall spanning roughly 50 feet wide and 20 feet tall, LVCCLD Executive Director Kelvin Watson called the new facility a “vibrant” example of what a “21st century library” should be.
“Libraries are community equalizers. We provide services to everyone, regardless of who you are or your income level,” he said. “And to have it here in the Historic Westside is just a momentous thing.”
Accentuated by natural light funneling through massive windows, the building’s sleek interior is home to much more than just the standard bookshelves, computer labs and event spaces found at most libraries. A dedicated art gallery lives on the ground floor, while its hallways lead to several multimedia workshop rooms equipped with resources like 3D printers, music and podcast equipment, sewing machines and even software that allows patrons to preserve their old VHS and cassette tapes.
3D Printer
Those features come as part of an expanded set of services that include a new business incubator program, adult learning courses and K-12 tutoring. Recent Chicago transplant Michelle Lee came to scout out some of these offerings for her son, who is now enrolled in a local STEM school.
“He’s working on building video games and stuff, and I feel like this is a great opportunity for him to learn how to do podcasts, too,” Lee said. “It seems like they put a lot of hard work into this place, and I think it’s going to pay off.”
As nearby visitors sat down and solved jigsaw puzzles in a few adjacent booths, Westside resident Pam Arcuri spared no time selecting a new stack of books to check out.
“The old branch was where I got my first library card in Las Vegas, and I picked up a new one today,” she said. “I obviously like books, but I see now that libraries have become so much more than that. There’s a lot more media, because that’s the wave of the future.”
Not far from her, kids frolicked around displays outlining prominent local and national history, with a particular emphasis on African American contributions to art and culture. Longtime Westside resident Janice Williams was once in their shoes, back when she moved here from Louisiana with her family in 1972.
“This library has always been a pillar in this community. As a kid, I couldn’t wait to go read at the first one on D Street, and to see kids excited to come here today means a lot, because it shows it still has the same impact after all this time,” Williams said.
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