For Immediate Release: May 28, 2008

**Invitation to Cover/Photo Opportunity**

Oakland Public Library Breaks Ground
on New East Oakland Community Library

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WHAT: Groundbreaking Ceremony to celebrate the start of construction for the new East Oakland Community Library at 81st Avenue.

WHO: Vice-Mayor Larry Reid; City Administrator Deborah Edgerly; Carol Jones, District Director for Sandré Swanson, 16 th Assembly District; Alice Spearman, Vice-President, Oakland School Board; Carmen Martínez, Library Director; Bessie Condos, Youth Services Specialist, California State Library Bond Administration Office; and children from the ACORN Woodland Elementary School and EnCompass Academy. Music performed by Oaktown Jazz Workshop led by Khalil Shaheed.

WHEN: Friday, May 30, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. Groundbreaking (photo opportunity) at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: 1021 81 st Avenue (at Rudsdale). Meet in the amphitheater on the campus of Acorn Woodland School and EnCompass Academy.

(Oakland, CA.) - Join the City of Oakland, Oakland Public Library, Oakland Unified School District and others as we celebrate the building of the new East Oakland Community Library with speeches, music, and light refreshments. This library will be the first joint school/public library in the city of Oakland and – at 21,000 square feet – the largest branch in the Oakland Public Library system when it opens in winter 2009.

The $14.3 million project is being funded by a $6.5 million grant from the California Reading and Literacy Improvement and Public Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 2000 (Proposition 14); $4 million from the Oakland Redevelopment Agency, and land donated by the Oakland Unified School District. A separate fundraising campaign led by the Oakland Public Library is being conducted to purchase new furniture, equipment, and fixtures.

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