Galt Ocean Mile Branch

Address:  3403 Galt Ocean Drive, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
Telephone:  954-537-2877
Hours: 
Sunday and Wednesday:  Closed
Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday:  9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Thursday:  12 noon to 8:00 p.m.

Directions:  The Galt Ocean Mile Branch is located on A1A, just north of Oakland Park Boulevard.  Turn east on N.E. 35 Street and then turn right onto Galt Ocean Drive. Drive one block to the plaza.

While some Broward County Library branches are two stories tall and enormous, some other branches are smaller and cozier, where everyone knows your name. The Galt Ocean Mile Reading Center is such a branch. It is located close to the ocean, separated from it by a canyon of condos which contain many of its customers. The reading center is located at the southern edge of Galt Ocean Mile (just east of A1A) at 3403 Galt Ocean Drive in Fort Lauderdale. Plaza neighbors include a barber shop, café, beauty parlor, mail center, jeweler, and real estate agent.

From November through April when snowbirds are in their condos and tourists are in town, the reading center is hopping. This is the time of their highest check-out activity and their largest number of programs.

Year-round, five staff members provide personalized service to a clientele that is mostly older and retired, many of whom held professional careers. The customers favor the best sellers listed in the New York Times, and many of them prefer their hot fiction titles in large-print editions and audio books. They also rely on readers' advisory services where staff librarians help them locate cooking recipes and find library materials on health issues (like diabetes), or spiritual topics and self-help, or just find them a particular DVD. They like independent and foreign films a lot.

There are some families living in the condos and some visiting grandchildren who use the library services. So there is a small children's collection, but the Galt Ocean Reading Center is mainly about adult services.

The center holds a variety of classes, such as senior self defense, granny power, health programs and basic computer classes. There are poetry recitals and professional book reviews, and occasionally authors drop in to discuss their works. Older movies starring actors such as Cary Grant and Gary Cooper are shown in the meeting room. During the winter, there is also a popular Yiddish culture group that expresses itself in song and music.

The staff likes to celebrate every holiday with appropriate book discussions or video presentations geared to holiday events. In celebration of Jewish holidays, for example, they will feature movies like "Yentl" and "Fiddler on the Roof."

The Galt Ocean Mile Reading Center is technologically up-to-speed with wi-fi access, and lots of laptop computers in evidence during the season. Travelers also use the library's computers to print out airline boarding passes, locate tourist attractions, and send e-mail to relatives in places as far away as England and Germany.    

The Friends of Galt Ocean Mile is a very active 12-member group that helps sponsor events at the reading center and provides refreshments. Once a month, the Friends will present a gallery of a local artist's work with an opportunity to meet the artist and to buy some paintings or sculpture in support of library programs.

The Galt Ocean Reading Branch is a very welcoming place, where people greet each other and get to know each other by name. It is a social center for many of the local residents who have little other social interaction. This library branch is so loved, that people even come by and plant flowers in the little planting area in front of the window.