The UW Tacoma Library, in collaboration with UW Libraries Advancement, was thrilled to host a wonderful celebration in our Tioga Library Building on April 24th, 2023. The event — entitled Children Belong: Celebrating Our Library —  was a joyous unveiling of our new caregiver-child study carrel, replete with ribbon cutting, champagne toasts, and a pizza party to follow. Young guests were gifted social-justice themed books, and origami and coloring stations made sure that the event offered fun venues for our smallest library patrons.

At heart of this celebration was the gratitude for everything Dr. Belinda Louie has done for the UW Tacoma Library, including the generous endowment fund that continues to let us grow our Children and Young Adult collection. We share a few photos of the event below, which featured speeches by Dean Endo, Dean Harris, and Associate Dean of Libraries Annie Downey; we are thankful to all of Dr. Louie’s family, including her grandchildren, for attending and celebrating with us!

With gratitude to Dr. Louie and her family, we also raised enough funds for a second carrel — the UW Tacoma Library is one of only eight academic libraries to have this type of specialized furniture in North America, and the only academic library on the West Coast!

All images courtesy Alex Blair, UW Libaries Advancement.