At Gregory Heights Library in Roseway, a pair of self-checkout kiosks sit immediately inside the doors. A cart of Gabrielle Zevin’s gaming novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow sits beside them, free for keeps as part of the Everybody Reads program. The scene is surprisingly modern for a modest, neighborhood library built in 1966—and suggests what to expect in the coming months in libraries around town.

Gregory Heights is the first completed project funded by the $437.7 million Library Capital Bond, which passed with voter approval, in 2020, to fund a “dramatic reinvention” of the library system. Extensive closures and pop-up library spaces have put a strain on Portlanders during construction, but by winter 2026, all 20 MCL properties are set to be modernized. Three new libraries will be built, plus a distribution center that just opened; five existing libraries will get extensive remodeling, expansion, and seismic upgrades; and the remaining 11 will receive cosmetic and operational “refreshes.” The other 19 libraries will get self-checkout kiosks.

Gregory Heights’ large, single room got a refresh, and reopened January 4 after a six-month closure. Last Friday afternoon, despite a looming snowstorm, its newly designed layout was in heavy use. The new play space wriggled with kids. Teens studied alongside remote workers glued to laptops in the expanded public workspace with upgraded internet speeds, part of the largest free wifi network in the state. An employee translated a document into Spanish for a man at a desktop computer. You could see all this from any vantage, owing to new low shelving designed to improve safety via open sight lines.

But Where Are the Books? 

Notably, there aren’t tons of books at the Gregory Heights Library. They’re present—a half-dozen central shelves and more lining the walls, with extensive Spanish and Vietnamese sections to accommodate the neighborhood’s population—but by no means abundant. This is partially because the new distribution center allows swifter access, and partially because MCL had 6 million digital e-book checkouts in 2023, same as the New York Public Library. But it also reflects the library’s modern function as a community center providing free public resources, a substantial update to the romantic vision of a great hall of dusty tomes.

A third-party November 2023 audit of the first progress report filed by the project’s overseeing committee found the renovations running on time and within budget, with “no significant issues,” despite pandemic-related labor and supply shortages and inflation. It also called the project’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts “outstanding.” A major goal of the overhaul is to expand library access, particularly on the city’s east side, which, despite more residents and lower average incomes, has fewer libraries. A 95,000-square-foot East County Library, remodeled from the Gresham City Hall park and ride, is set to serve as a second flagship location, symbolically and functionally balancing Downtown’s Central Library. The Capital Hill and Central Libraries are scheduled to reopen shortly, with the others rolling out over the next two years.

In Short

Though small, Gregory Heights is an encouraging first public sign of the project’s success. There are still buildings to erect and hundreds of millions of dollars to spend. The question of how the historically understaffed libraries will run an expanded network looms. But early indicators point to an efficient, modern system designed around the people it serves.