I loved the tower of green, yellow and blue balloons outside the library, signifying the grand reopening of the Park Slope Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.

The branch has been closed for renovations since 2009.

Three years is a long time for a neighborhood to go without a local library and judging from the crowd of  people who were pouring in last night to get a look at all the improvements, the library has been missed. There was lots of oohing and ahing at the beautifully restored, cleaned-up and modernized library.

Everything looked bigger, cleaner, better laid out and fresh. A huge crowd gathered on the first floor to hear Pete Hamill read from his memoir A Drinking Life. Frankly, it was impossible to hear him. I took a look at the second floor shelves and reading area.

It’s a small, cozy library: a perfect neighborhood library with a great kid’s section and a small and genralist’s selection of books. They also have CDs and DVDs. It’s not a hush hush type of library—it does have a large children’s section on the first floor—but it’s a wonderful place to read, to browse, do research, write and think.