MAKIKI COMMUNITY LIBRARY OVERVIEW

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 		The Makiki Community Library is a non-profit, recreational reading library located on Ke`eaumoku Street, just mauka of Lunalilo Freeway in Makiki District Park. It was founded by a group of community members in 1978 with support from the City and County of Honolulu. In 1995, the city withdrew its funding, and the library has operated independently ever since.

It is not part of the State Library System, and is instead supported by its patrons (via book sales and donations) and members of the Friends of Makiki Library. The library is managed by the Makiki Library Board and operated by a generous and hard-working crew of volunteers.

Much of its collection comes from individual donations. This includes fiction, non-fiction, sci-fi, mystery, romance, children's books, young adults, reference, magazines and periodicals, new/easy readers, and large-print titles. The library also has a large Hawaiiana collection, as well as a section for Japanese, Chinese and Korean books and magazines. Because of limited space and staffing, books which cannot be housed at Makiki Library are in turn donated to other groups such as Hale Nani, The Institute for Human Services (IHS), the state prison system, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. In this way, Makiki Library also supports the larger Hawai`i community.

Three public schools ? Roosevelt, Stevenson and Jefferson ? are located just blocks from the library (the closest state libraries are in McCully, Manoa and Downtown). Because the library is within easy walking distance of these schools and located in a park, it receives a great deal of foot traffic, seving an average of 1,200 people a month.