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MCCCD board OKs county library buy
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When the George L. Campbell Library opened 16 years ago, it served an area of northeast Phoenix where other options for checking out books didn’t exist. Now, it could serve more than 8,500 community college students.
The Maricopa County Community College District governing board unanimously approved the purchase of Campbell Library at 17811 N. 32nd St., just south of the Paradise Valley Community College campus.
The March 27 decision to buy the library for $4 million plus closing costs will give PVCC more classroom, office and lab space, said Rod Fensom, the college’s director of marketing.
Now, the purchase must be approved by the Maricopa County Library District, Fensom said.
If approved, PVCC students will begin using the 65,929-square-foot library in as soon as six months.
“For Paradise Valley Community College, the purchase of this beautiful facility brings the opportunity for our students to participate in creative approaches to teaching and learning,” said Mary Kay Kickels, PVCC president.
The library will be sold because of its proximity to other local libraries, said Audrey Brownell, county library district spokeswoman.
“Our service mission is to provide library services in areas not being served by any other library,” Brownell said.
The library district currently runs facilities in towns such as Avondale and Aguila.
But attendance at the Campbell Library has steadily declined, Brownell said. Its former patrons visit libraries in the Phoenix Public Library system instead, such as Mesquite Library, which is just north of Paradise Valley Mall, Fensom added.
If approved, the money from the sale will go into the library district’s general funds for future needs, Brownell said.
The money will come from PVCC’s revenue from the sale of bonds, approved by voters in 2004.
In addition to new student facilities, the Campbell Library will continue to house a library district branch until 2011, as well as the Arizona Agribusiness and Equine Center Charter School until the end of its lease in 2013.
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