The hum of pop music, a colorful rainbow of retail stores and a steady stream of shoppers fill Escondido’s Mershops North County Mall.
For the last few months shoppers can also find something they might not expect to see: the Escondido Public Library.
“This is the second time at the new location, but we've gone to the old location a lot of times,” said North County resident Denny Fulop.
Fulop planned to run some errands at the mall after spending time at the library with his son, Conrad.
“This works pretty good, it's closer to our house. It's clean and organized,” Fulop said. “The old one was fun too, it felt like a little bit bigger space in the upstairs. Our kids do miss the computers, they have games and puzzles, so they were disappointed they didn't see that at first.”
Clara Chan brought her son, Hudson, to the library's children's story time program held in the mall’s center court.
“I didn't even know this library was here until I started seeing them on Instagram, so I wanted to check it out,” Chan said.
They hadn't been to the downtown location before, she said the mall location is convenient.
“I feel like if people are just shopping and see it, they will be curious about it. So I think it's great,” Chan said.
The library opened temporarily at the mall in late May while the main branch downtown undergoes renovations.
Staff moved thousands of books and repurposed five storefronts on the mall’s first floor. So far it’s been busy.
“In the past year at the downtown (library), we average around 20,000 visits each month, with some months having more or less. Here at the mall just last month we passed 23,000 visitors,” said library director, Rino Landa.
Almost all of the library services are up and running in this smaller space.
It’s about half the size of the downtown location — so there’s less seating, computers and books on display. Still, Landa said the mall location has led to new clientele.
“We’re seeing a lot more interest in younger families that are coming to the mall for shopping or entertainment and they're also stopping by the library. We’re also seeing a very big increase in our teen demographic,” Landa said.
He said he hopes to keep a branch at the mall when renovations at the downtown library are completed next year.
