Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library

Last updated
Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library
Silver Spring Library 9-23-16.jpg
The exterior of the library across Fenton St.
Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library
38°59′42″N77°01′28″W / 38.9949°N 77.0245°W / 38.9949; -77.0245
Location900 Wayne Avenue,
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, United States
Type Public library
Established1931;93 years ago (1931)
Branch of Montgomery County Public Libraries
Access and use
Population served76,716
Other information
Budget$4 million
DirectorUzoma Onyemaechi (manager) [1]
Website www.montgomerycountymd.gov/library/branches/silverspring.html

The Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library, formerly the Silver Spring Library, is part of the Montgomery County Public Libraries System. It opened to the public in 1931 and is currently located at 900 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland. The library is named for Charles E. McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who had lived in Montgomery County.

Contents

History

Early locations

Silver Spring Library began service in 1931 at East Silver Spring Elementary School. [2]

In 1934, the library moved to Jesup Blair Community House, also known as "The Moorings." [3] Architect Howard Wright Cutler remodeled the building to serve as a library, [3] [4] and his work earned the building a nomination for placement on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. [4] The library operated out of the Jesup Blair House for 23 years.

The 1957 Silver Spring Library building 1957 Silver Spring Library.jpg
The 1957 Silver Spring Library building

Colesville Road (1957–2015)

The library opened a building of its own at 8901 Colesville Road in 1957, on land donated by the Hecht Company. At this location, the library occupied a building dedicated exclusively for the library's use for the first time.

Ellsworth Urban Park was created in an area covering 3.6 acres (1.5 ha) beside the library in 1979. The park has two playground areas where parents can take their children to play, and a tennis court.

In 1990, Marcia Billig's sculpture Lion and the Mouse was installed in the grass of the library. [5] [6]

A celebration of 58 years of service was held on March 15, 2015, the last day of service at the Colesville Road location. [2]

Current location (2015–present)

The 2015 building from the corner of Wayne and Fenton Silver Spring Library.JPG
The 2015 building from the corner of Wayne and Fenton

The current library location at 900 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring was opened on June 20, 2015. [7] The facility was built for $64 million, including the acquisition of 1.46 acres (0.59 ha) of land, preparation of the site, design, construction, furniture, equipment and funds to improve the collection. [8] Construction was to cost $23 million, but $3 million was taken to renovate the Fillmore, a music venue nearby in downtown Silver Spring. The ground floor of the seven-story building has a coffee shop and a platform for the future Purple Line light rail station. [9] In 2022, the library was renamed for Brigadier General Charles E. McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who had lived in Montgomery County. [10] [11]

Collection

The library has a collection of 90,000 books, magazines, downloadable music, e-books, and a World Language Collection in Amharic, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese, organized in the following way:

Teens collection (third floor)

Adults collection (fourth floor)

Children collection (fifth floor)

Other resources

In 2016, the library also offered:

Services

Study rooms

The library has 14 study rooms with space for up to 8 people. Study rooms can be reserved online every week, and can be used once a day for up to 2 hours every day. [20]

Printers and scanners

The library has four multi-function printers that can be used with a library card. Scanning of documents is free and can be stored via USB flash drives. Documents can be printed from any computer in the library and have a cost of 15 cents per black-and-white page and $1 per color page.

Hotspot

The library also has a free hotspot with up to 10 MiB/s of throughput for visitors with personal laptops, tablets or smartphones.

Online services and mobile applications

Montgomery County Public Libraries works with more than ten providers of online services and companies that offer desktop access but also developed their own applications for mobile devices such as tablets, cellphones (such as Android and iPhone), and Kindle that use its services.

Among the apps are the following:

Courtesy charging stations

Three courtesy charging stations are available, with connectors, where visitors can charge cellphones and tablets.

Accessibility

The library follows Accessibility regulations:

See also

Related Research Articles

Mobipocket SA was a French company incorporated in March 2000 that created the .mobi e-book file format and produced the Mobipocket Reader software for mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDA) and desktop operating systems.

The following is a comparison of e-book formats used to create and publish e-books.

Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, though its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google. It was unveiled in November 2007, with the first commercial Android device, the HTC Dream, being launched in September 2008.

Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. The hardware platform, which Amazon subsidiary Lab126 developed, began as a single device in 2007. Currently, it comprises a range of devices, including e-readers with E Ink electronic paper displays and Kindle applications on all major computing platforms. All Kindle devices integrate with Windows and macOS file systems and Kindle Store content and, as of March 2018, the store had over six million e-books available in the United States.

OverDrive, Inc. is a worldwide digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, online magazines and streaming video titles. The company provides digital rights management and download fulfillment services for publishers, public libraries, K-12 schools, colleges, universities, corporations, legal industries, and formerly retailers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OverDrive Media Console</span> Media player developed by OverDrive, Inc

OverDrive Media Console was a proprietary, freeware application developed by OverDrive, Inc. for use with its digital distribution services for libraries, schools, and retailers. The application enables users to access audiobooks, eBooks, periodicals, and videos borrowed from libraries and schools—or purchased from booksellers—on devices running Android, BlackBerry, iOS (iPad/iPhone/iPod), and Windows, including Mac and Windows desktop and laptop computers.

Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, e-readers and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is a subsidiary of the Japanese e-commerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MIT App Inventor</span> Web application development environment

MIT App Inventor is a high-level block-based visual programming language, originally built by Google and now maintained by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It allows newcomers to create computer applications for two operating systems: Android and iOS, which, as of 25 September 2023, is in beta testing. It is free and open-source released under dual licensing: a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license and an Apache License 2.0 for the source code. Its target is primarily children and students studying computer programming, similar to Scratch.

Amazon Drive, formerly known as Amazon Cloud Drive, is a cloud storage application managed by Amazon. The service offers secure cloud storage, file backup, file sharing, and Photo printing. Using an Amazon account, the files and folders can be transferred and managed from multiple devices, including web browsers, desktop applications, mobiles, and tablets. Amazon Drive also lets their U.S. users order photo prints and photo books using the Amazon Prints service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amazon Fire</span> Amazon Fire tablet timeline

The Amazon Fire, formerly called the Kindle Fire, is a line of tablet computers developed by Amazon. Built with Quanta Computer, the Kindle Fire was first released in November 2011, featuring a color 7-inch multi-touch display with IPS technology and running on Fire OS, an Android-based operating system. The Kindle Fire HD followed in September 2012, and the Kindle Fire HDX in September 2013. In September 2014, when the fourth generation was introduced, the name "Kindle" was dropped. In later generations, the Fire tablet is also able to convert into a Smart speaker turning on the "Show Mode" options, which the primary interaction will be by voice command through Alexa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Play</span> Digital distribution service by Google

Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store or Play Store and formerly Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating system and its derivatives, as well as ChromeOS, allowing users to browse and download applications developed with the Android software development kit (SDK) and published through Google. Google Play has also served as a digital media store, offering games, music, books, movies, and television programs. Content that has been purchased on Google Play Movies & TV and Google Play Books can be accessed on a web browser and through the Android and iOS apps.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire HDX</span> Amazon Fire tablet timeline

The Fire HDX, formerly named Kindle Fire HDX, was a high-end model in Amazon Fire line of tablet computers. It was announced on September 25, 2013, and was available in two models, 7 inch and 8.9 inch. The 7 inch WiFi model was released on October 18, 2013, and the 8.9 inch WiFi model was released on November 7, 2013, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fire OS</span> Tablet operating system for Amazon devices

Fire OS is a mobile operating system based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). It is developed by Amazon for their devices. Fire OS includes proprietary software, a customized user interface primarily centered on content consumption, and heavy ties to content available from Amazon's storefronts and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oyster (company)</span> Commercial streaming service for digital e-books

Oyster was a commercial streaming service for digital e-books, available for Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, and NOOK HD/HD+ devices. It was also available on any web browser on a desktop or laptop computer. Oyster held over 1 million books in its library, and as of September 2015, the service was only available in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoopla (digital media service)</span> North American provider of digital media for public libraries

Hoopla is a web and mobile (Android/iOS) library media streaming platform launched in 2010 for audio books, comics, e-books, movies, music, and TV. Patrons of a library that supports Hoopla have access to its collection of digital media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Play Books</span> Digital distribution service for ebooks

Google Play Books, formerly Google eBooks, is an ebook digital distribution service operated by Google, part of its Google Play product line. Users can purchase and download ebooks and audiobooks from Google Play, which offers over five million titles, with Google claiming it to be the "largest ebooks collection in the world". Books can be read on a dedicated Books section on the Google Play website, through the use of a mobile app available for Android and iOS, through the use of select e-readers that offer support for Adobe Digital Editions, through a web browser and reading via Google Home. Users may also upload up to 2,000 ebooks in the PDF or EPUB file formats. Google Play Books is available in 75 countries.

Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows, educational videos and documentaries. The service is free for users, but content owners and content creators are paid on a pay-per-view model by the institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">B4X</span>

B4X is a suite of rapid application development IDEs and proprietary programming language that allows the creation of applications on the following platforms: Google Android, Apple iOS, Java, Raspberry Pi and Arduino. Although the B4X syntax is very similar to BASIC, it is an entirely new language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beelinguapp</span> Language-learning mobile application

Beelinguapp is a language-learning mobile application. It works by showing a text to the user in two languages simultaneously, allowing the users to use their native language as a references. It also works as an audio book, where users can listen to a recording of a voice reading a text while at the same time a karaoke style animation moves through the text in both languages. The app offers different kinds of texts across 12 languages; with additional languages in development. Beelinguapp app is available on Android and iOS.

References

  1. ↑ "Silver Spring Library". Montgomery County Public Libraries. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
  2. 1 2 "Montgomery County Public Libraries' Silver Spring Branch will close March 15". Montgomery County, MD. February 24, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  3. 1 2 McCoy, Jerry (2016-05-04). Historic Silver Spring (MD). Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   0738541885.
  4. 1 2 Bosser, Diane (2005-11-28). "House of Blair". Insights. Retrieved September 24, 2016.
  5. ↑ "Lion and the Mouse". Silver Spring Urban District. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Marcia Billig". Marcia Billig. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Silver Spring Library". Building Design and Construction. Rockville, MD: Montgomery County Department of General Services. Retrieved 2022-07-02.
  8. 1 2 "Silver Spring Library Fact Sheet" (PDF). Montgomery County Public Libraries. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  9. ↑ Izadi, Elahe (August 27, 2010). "New Silver Spring library $3M over budget". TBD Neighborhoods. Albritton Communications. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010.
  10. ↑ Cremen, Alanea (February 25, 2022). "Silver Spring Library to be renamed after Tuskegee Airman Brig. Gen. Charles McGee". WUSA9 News. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
  11. ↑ Schere, Dan (March 1, 2022). "Silver Spring Library Named in memory of Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee". Bethesda Magazine. Archived from the original on October 22, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  12. ↑ "Borrowing Library Materials". Montgomery County Maryland. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Windows PC App Installation". Cloud Library. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  14. ↑ "How to transfer eBooks to an eReader using Adobe Digital Editions". OverDrive. September 2, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  15. ↑ "How do I get ebooks on my Nook?". Baltimore County Public Library. July 21, 2016. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  16. ↑ "Downloading 3M Cloud Library eBooks for NOOK". eReady Richland (Richland County Public Library). Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Mango Languages". Mango Languages. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  18. ↑ "Muzzy Club". Muzzy Learning UK. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  19. ↑ "LibX MCPL LibX Toolbar". Virginia Tech. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  20. ↑ "Silver Spring Library Study Rooms". Montgomery County Public Libraries. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  21. ↑ "Bookmine". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  22. ↑ "3M Cloud Library". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  23. ↑ "3M Cloud Library". Apple. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  24. ↑ "OverDrive". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  25. ↑ "OverDrive – Library eBooks and Audiobooks". Apple. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  26. ↑ "OverDrive: Library eBooks & Audiobooks". Amazon. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  27. ↑ "Freegal Music". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  28. ↑ "Zinio for Libraries". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  29. ↑ "Flipster – Digital Magazines". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  30. ↑ "OneClickdigital". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  31. ↑ "ReferenceUSA for iPad". Apple. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  32. ↑ "Access My Library". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  33. ↑ "EBSCOhost". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  34. ↑ "LibriVox Audio Books Free". Google. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  35. ↑ "LibriVox Audio Books". Apple. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
  36. ↑ "About Us". Kanopy.
  37. ↑ "Kanopy Streaming Video". University of Oregon . Archived from the original on 2016-09-14. Retrieved 2016-07-21.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.