The C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library, formerly known as the College Hill Branch Library, is in

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The 8,500 sq. foot facility was renamed in 2011 for ''

Florida Sentinel Bulletin The ''Florida Sentinel Bulletin'' is a Florida bi-weekly newspaper serving the Tampa Bay Area African-American community. History In 1919, General William W. Andrews opened the ''Florida Sentinels office in Jacksonville, Florida. Later, the offi ...

'' owner and publisher C. Blythe Andrews. The library is located at 2607 E. Dr. MLK Jr. Blvd. It is part of the

Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System The Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System (THPL) is a public library system based in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. It is part of two larger library networks, the Tampa Bay Library Consortium, and the Hillsborough County ...

(THPL), as well as a member of the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative (HCPLC). The library offers books, audiobooks, music CDs, magazines, and DVDs, and internet access is available through computers and WiFi. There is a large community room and a small meeting room available for public usage. The full suite of

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desktop apps is also available for members to use by booking ahead and on a walk-in basis.

History

The library first opened to the public as the College Hill Public Library on June 16, 1989, in an 800 square foot double-wide trailer. The current building opened in 1994 and, in 2010, was renamed after C. Blythe Andrews Jr., a publisher of the ''

'', a newspaper serving the African American community.

Future plans

At 8,500 square feet, the previous library building was considered too small for the number of customers the library was intaking. The C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library Closed on April 15, 2017, so that work could start on the construction of a new, larger library to better assist the needs of the community. The new C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library re-opened in 2019.

Friends of the library

The C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library receives support from the Ada T. Payne Friends of the Urban Libraries. Their fundraising efforts support not only this branch, but also the Robert W. Saunders Sr. Public Library and the West Tampa Branch Library. The Ada. T Payne friends have bookstores in all three of these libraries.

Library art

The library features two lithographs in the main reading room area: ''No Place Like Home, 1990'' by artist Louis Delsarte and ''With Honors, 1989'' by artist Synthia St. James. There are twenty-one Burgert Brothers' black-and-white photograph reproductions that are included in the library's art collection.

References

External links

C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library
hillsboroughcounty.org Retrieved 2016-04-12 – Official website
C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library: Locations: Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative
''www.hcplc.org'' Retrieved 2016-04-12
C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library Expansion/Replacement
www.hillsboroughcounty.org Retrieved 2016-04-12 {{authority control Public libraries in Florida