West Covina Library was originally founded in 1915 and has been located in the West Covina Civic Center since 1961. On Aug. 9, 2021 publication LA Senionetal published an article about how 30 out of the 85 libraries in the LA county area will be reopening for select in-person services on April 19, 2021. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, there was a rush of closures around the world in order to contain the virus and protect the health of people, while the West Covina Library was on the list of the 30 libraries to open on April 19th to this day it is still temporarily closed.
Manager of the West Covina and Baldwin Park library, Wen Wen Zhang, stated that the library is closed due to renovations. Zhang explained that the library needed renovations in order for the library to maintain its beauty. Books have been stored in separate places to protect the books from construction. Wen Wen Zhang was unable to provide a reopening date; many are left to wonder why renovations are taking so long.
Advisor of The National English Honors Society (NEHS) and English teacher, Tonatzin Rodriguez, explained that while closed, library staff was able to do events for NEHS. The West Covina Library came to NEHS’s ‘Read Across America’ event, described the event, and brought books and other resources in support of the event. Rodriguez hopes that the library will try to open soon in order to get books out to the community.
“It puts students at a disadvantage for having access to books,” said Rodriguez.
Libraries are known for holding collections of various books for people to read, research and more. Rodriguez shares that students do have limited access to books in the school’s library and that having a local library would help students in giving them resources and a free space for them.
Located at 1601 W West Covina Pkwy, West Covina. CA 91790, the library still provides services in order to help its community. They provide bookdrops for any item returns, also provide sidewalk services, and have available phone hours. Some special services they provide for teens or children are online homework help.
