Aurora’s plan to close two library branches this fall will create a neighborhood void for loyal patrons

Aurora’s Chambers Plaza Library reopened less than three years ago to great fanfare after a decade-plus closure. But now the modest branch at the edge of a strip mall on East Colfax Avenue will close again — this time for good.

It is one of two branches set to go dark in the city at the end of October as the Aurora Public Library shrinks its presence from seven to five branches in an effort to consolidate services across the city of 400,000 to the locations where they are used most. The other one targeted to close is the Iliff Square Library at South Peoria Street and East Iliff Avenue.

While the twin closures will coincide with an expansion of the Martin Luther King Jr. branch — a few miles down Colfax from the Chambers Plaza Library — it’s cold comfort for those who live in and around Aurora’s Altura neighborhood.

“I love this library,” Debbie Cochran said as she got ready to enter the Chambers Plaza branch on a recent morning.

Cochran, 75, doesn’t own a computer. She uses the library’s bank of desktop machines to read and send emails.

“I have access to their computers,” she said. “It’s very convenient.”

Ginger White Brunetti, the director of the Aurora Library and Cultural Services Department, characterized the branch closures scheduled for Oct. 24 as a “strategic business decision.” Ending the leases on both the Chambers Plaza and Iliff Square buildings will save the city $120,000 a year.

The expansion of the MLK branch, which is being funded by a $2.5 million federal grant, will double the size of the library to 16,500 square feet by activating its second floor, White Brunetti said. That means more study and meeting rooms, new technology and “maker spaces,” where patrons can learn new skills, like using a 3D printer or a sewing machine.

White Brunetti said the five staff members at Chambers Plaza and Iliff Square will be transferred to MLK, which is scheduled to open in its new, upgraded configuration on Nov. 3.

“We thought it was better to put our seasoned staff at MLK, which is expanding to optimize the resources we have,” she said. “And those (two) branches don’t have the same number of visits as our other branches.”

According to 2024 library data, Chambers Plaza saw 32,098 visits and Iliff Square had 33,915 — the two least-patronized branches in the system. Hoffman Heights Library, just southwest of the Anschutz Medical Campus, was third from the bottom, with nearly 50,000 visits last year.

Aurora Public Library’s two most popular locations were Tallyn’s Reach Library, in southeast Aurora, with 182,378 visits, and the Central Library, near the city’s municipal headquarters on East Alameda Avenue, with 116,805 visits.

Checkouts of physical materials across the system have declined over the last three years — from 406,886 in 2022 to 389,218 in 2023 to 304,263 last year. Overall checkout volume remains well below its pre-pandemic level of 613,000 items in 2019. On the electronic side, e-checkouts have fluctuated in the last six years but have generally gone up from 230,000 in 2019, peaking in 2023 at 380,000.

Aurora City Councilman Curtis Gardner expressed disappointment at the news, which the city announced earlier this month.

“I think libraries are a core service of city government, and they are just as relevant today as they were 50 years ago,” he said. “While this decision makes sense from a visitor standpoint, it’s still disappointing. I hope my colleagues will prioritize funding for our libraries in the future to ensure we have a library system on par with a city of our size.”

Neighboring Denver, with slightly less than twice the population of Aurora, has 27 library branches.