Virginia Beach Public Library System

Virginia Beach Public Library System
Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library
Location	Virginia Beach, Virginia
Established	1930
Branches	13
Collection
Size	> 1,000,000 items
Other information
Director	Marcy Sims
Website	http://www.vbgov.com/libraries

Virginia Beach Public Library (VBPL), located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, provides free access to accurate and current information and materials to all individuals, and promotes reading as a critical life skill. The library supports the educational and leisure needs of Virginia Beach citizens with a system of area libraries, a bookmobile, a virtual library, the Wahab Public Law Library, the Municipal Reference Library, and the Special Services for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. The collection contains more than 1,000,000 print and non-print items.

Branches

VBPL has 13 locations including a youth library, a law library, a virtual library and a Bookmobile. The different library buildings range in size from the large 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m²) Central Library on busy Virginia Beach Boulevard to the much smaller Pungo-Blackwater Library attached to Creeds Elementary School on Princess Anne Road. Library locations included: Central Library, Bayside Special Service Library, Great Neck Area Library, Kempsville Area Library, Oceanfront Area Library, Princess Anne Area Library, Pungo-Blackwater Library, South Rosemont Youth Library, Windsor Woods Area Library. On December 10, 2008, just before Meyera E. Oberndorf's 21-year run as city mayor ended, the city council unanimously voted to rename the city's Central Library the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library.

Reference and Information Services

VBPL offers citizens multiple ways to ask the library for assistance: telephone, in person, email and instant message (IM). Telephone, in person and email assistance are available during normal library hours:

• Monday - Thursday 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.
• Friday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Saturdays 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
• Sundays 1 - 5 p.m. (1st Sunday after Labor Day - May)

Ask VBPL, the library's virtual reference via IM is available during the following hours:

• Monday - Thursday 3 - 7 p.m.
• Saturdays 1 – 5 p.m.

Anyone can ask the library a question via IM without having their own personal IM account. Customers need to type a question in the Ask VBPL box on the Ask the Library web page.

Library Governance and Support

The library is governed by a 13-member Advisory Board which is appointed by City Council and includes city, school and teen members. In addition to the funding provided by the city and the state, the library is supported by the Friends of the Virginia Beach Public Library. The Friends provide approximately $100,000 of annual funding for library programs. The Virginia Beach Public Library Foundation, with assets of over $1 million, also supports the Library by funding large initiatives such as Ready to Learn and the International Language Collection.

Special Collections

Grants Collection

The Grants Collection of print and electronic resources providing access to essential information related to grantsmanship, educational and research funding, as well as literature on proposal-writing, fundraising, nonprofit management, and philanthropy. Part of the Grants Collection is a cooperating collection of the Foundation Center, an independent national service organization in New York. Due to licensing restrictions, this cooperating collection is available only at the Virginia Beach Central Library. In addition, the Grants Resource Center includes other materials in both print and electronic format on scholarships, fellowships, grants, and other funding opportunities for individuals and nonprofit organizations from private, corporate, and federal funding agencies.

International Language Collection

The International Language Collection includes books, spoken recordings, and DVDs in the following languages: Spanish, Tagalog, French, German, Russian, Japanese and Latin. These materials are available at the Central, Bayside, Great Neck, Kempsville, Oceanfront, Princess Anne, and Pungo Blackwater Libraries.

Mission

The mission of the Virginia Beach Public Libraries provide diverse opportunities for learning and gathering that promote personal fulfillment, self-reliance and a sense of community, provide free and convenient access to accurate and current information and materials, and promote reading as a critical life skill and enjoyable activity for the entire Virginia Beach community.

External links

• Virginia Beach Public Library
• Online Catalog
• Online Reference Sources
• Library Programs
• Ask VBPL
• Library Hours and Directions
• Local History - Building The Community Through the Past
• City of Virginia Beach

Originally built in 1988 Remodelled in 2004