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The new Northwest Portland Library opens on NW Pettygrove

Local leaders cheer the library’s ribbon cutting on Saturday. From left to right: Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards, State Rep. Shannon Jones Isadore, Director of Libraries Annie Lewis, Multnomah County Commissioner Meghan Moyer and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson. Click to enlarge. Photos by Walden Kirsch

If you’re hunting for an excuse — even for just an hour or so — to knock off your doomscrolling and social media time-wasting, now you’ve got a solid reason. Multnomah County’s $21 million Northwest Portland Library, which opened Saturday morning to considerable fanfare, is more than double the square footage of its predecessor and offers, yes, books you can read.

The library at 2030 NW Pettygrove St. replaces the one on Northwest Thurman Street that closed in November after 25 years of operation. After celebratory comments from dignitaries and an ear-splitting percussion performance by the Last Regiment of Syncopated Drummers (for which they actually handed out earplugs — wait, this is a library, right?) several hundred folks traipsed into the building to check out its features.

A voter-approved bond measure in 2020 helped fund the space, which includes five community meeting rooms, a learning space specially for little kids, artwork installations and — because this is not your grandmother’s library — WiFi and other tech amenities, for when you’ve had it with all those books.

Here’s more information on the Northwest Library. It’s open seven days a week.

Visitors mobbed the library when its doors officially opened Saturday morning. The library is open seven days a week until at least 6 p.m. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, it stays open until 8 p.m.

Two-and-half-year old Mia Demartina was learning about octopuses. That’s her mom, Marisa Beltran, reading to her, as her grandmother, Linda Beltran, looks on.