Central Library open at temporary location in Librijesteeg

The Central Library Rotterdam can now be found at its temporary location on Librijesteeg. Visitors can go there for the next three years while the well-known library building with the yellow tubes is being renovated. The festive opening will take place Sunday afternoon 25 January with alderman Said Kasmi.

The opening takes place in a very special way. Many library partners, staff and visitors will make a long garland of the last moving boxes, chess pieces and other symbolic items from Hoogstraat 110 to Librijesteeg 4.

The new location is a two-minute walk from the building on Hoogstraat. The offer remains the same. Visitors will find the same number of books and study places, and can participate in the same activities, consultation hours and courses. New features in the building include a large communal kitchen, lending stations spread throughout the building and an extensive Make010 space. In this makerspace, visitors can work independently or under supervision with professional equipment to create digital and creative content.

According to director-director Alice Flanders, the temporary location offers room to experiment. ''We can explore here how visitors use the building and take those insights with us; here, as well as in the design of the renovated Central Library that reopens in mid-2029."

On Sunday 25 January, the building will be festively opened to the public between 1pm and 5pm. The afternoon starts with a so-called Moving-Transfer Garland, where visitors together symbolically move the last belongings from Hoogstraat to Librijesteeg. Afterwards, there will be activities for young and old throughout the building, including music, workshops and a scavenger hunt.

Photo: Rhalda Jansen