Kelsey Volkmann, The Examiner
2007-04-16 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

With its café, drive-through and self-checkout, the first library to open in Baltimore in 35 years looks more like a modern bookstore.

“When [Enoch Pratt Free Library executive director] Carla Hayden arrived in 1993, she said the new concept for super bookstores was that they copied ideas from libraries and created lounge areas,” said community volunteer Jacqueline Watts, who supports the new Southeast Anchor Library in Highlandtown. “Dr. Hayden said it was time for us to start stealing from them.”

For the first time, a city library will offer a drive-through window for book pickups and dropoffs. Call ahead to request Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” or simply drop off Mary Higgins Clark’s “Two Little Girls in Blue,” without leaving the car.

The café will stay open later than the seven-day-a-week library, a 27,000-square-foot, $11 million building boasting an 80,000-volume collection and computer lab, library spokesman Roswell Encina said.

The library also features a Latino section, Friends of the Southeast Anchor Library President Nan Rohrer said.

A Latino hip-hop artist will perform April 23; a Harry Potter bus will visit June 15.

“It’s a different kind of place,” Watts said. “Libraries can be a lot hipper and fun.”

Doors open May 14.

IF YOU GO

» What: Community preview of Southeast Anchor Library

» When: 6 p.m. Tuesday

» Where: 3601 Eastern Ave.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com