Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library
The Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library, formerly the Silver Spring Library, is part of the Montgomery County Public Libraries System. It opened to the public in 1931 and is currently located at 900 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring, Maryland. The library is named for Charles E. McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who had lived in Montgomery County. History. Early locations. Silver Spring Library began service in 1931 at East Silver Spring Elementary School. In 1934, the library moved to Jesup Blair Community House, also known as "The Moorings." Architect Howard Wright Cutler remodeled the  building to serve as a library, and his work earned the building a nomination for placement on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. The library operated out of the Jesup Blair House for 23 years. Colesville Road location. The library opened a building of its own at 8901 Colesville Road in 1957, on land donated by the Hecht Company. At this location, the library occupied a building dedicated exclusively for the library's use for the first time. Ellsworth Urban Park was created in an area covering beside the library in 1979. The park has two playground areas  where parents can take their children to play, and a tennis court. In 1990, Marcia Billig's sculpture "Lion and the Mouse" was installed in the grass of the library. A celebration of 58 years of service was held on March 15, 2015, the last day of service at the Colesville Road location. Current library. The current library location at 900 Wayne Avenue in Silver Spring was inaugurated on June 20, 2015. This facility was built at a cost $64 million, including the acquisition of of land, preparation of the site, design, construction, furniture, equipment and funds to enhance  the collection. A $23 million contract was originally planned for construction of the new library, but the project was reduced by $3 million to provide funds for the new Filmore building. The completed structure stands seven stories tall. It has a coffee shop and a platform for the future Purple Line light rail station. In 2022, the library was renamed for Brigadier General Charles E. McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who had lived in Montgomery County. Library renaming. On February 28 2022 Silver Spring Library was renamed to Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library in honor to Charles McGee . Collection. The library has a collection of 90,000 books, magazines, downloadable music, e-books, and a "World Language Collection" in Amharic, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Vietnamese, organized in the following way: Other resources. Other resources available at Brigadier General Charles E. McGee Library are the following: Services. Study rooms. The library has 14 study rooms with space for up to 8 people. Study rooms can be reserved online every week, and can be used once a day for up to 2 hours every day. Printers and scanners. The library has four multi-function printers that can be used with a  library card. Scanning of documents is free and can be stored via USB flash drives. Documents can be printed from any computer in the library and have a cost of 15 cents per black-and-white page and $1 per color page. Hotspot. The library also has a free hotspot with up to 10 MiB/s of throughput for visitors with personal laptops, tablets or smartphones. Online services and mobile applications. Montgomery County Public Libraries works with more than ten providers of online services and companies that offer desktop access but also developed their own applications for mobile devices  such as tablets, cellphones (such as Android and iPhone), and Kindle that use its services. Among the apps are the following: Courtesy charging stations. Three courtesy charging stations are available, with connectors, where visitors can charge cellphones and tablets. Accessibility. The library follows Accessibility regulations: