The Indianapolis Public Library- Glendale

About Glendale Branch Library:

The first public library branch to serve the Broad Ripple Community opened its doors on December 15, 1930 in a storefront building on East 63rd Street. Eight years later the library relocated to the first floor of the Masonic Lodge Building on what is now Guilford Avenue.

The first building constructed as a library for Broad Ripple opened on March 28, 1949 adjacent to School Number 80, just south of the Masonic Lodge. This new facility served the community well until the early 1980's when higher and higher circulation and a growing collection made expansion necessary. A new 11,500 square-foot branch library opened on a two-acre tract of land in Broad Ripple Park on March 22, 1986.

The Broad Ripple Library again faced the need to grow but with no feasible way of expanding on its two-acre tract. The Kite Development Corp. approached library officials with a lease proposal offering over 33,000 square feet of space to the library as an anchor store in Glendale Mall . After careful consideration of what the facility could offer in terms of expanded programming, book and media collections, technology, meeting rooms, study space, and parking, IMCPL accepted the mall's proposal.

The Glendale Branch Library opened its doors to the public on October 23, 2000 and became the country's first full-service library in a major shopping mall.