The Oakley Library currently has a month-to-month lease for 3,000 square feet of space inside the Freedom High School Library on Neroly Road. The library space has no community meeting rooms, the shelf space is limited and there are no quiet study or workspaces separating it from the High School side of the library. The Oakley Library needs to have a permanent space, with enough square footage to accommodate the needs of Oakley residents. Oakley residents need and deserve a Library Community Center with a suitable collection of resources, the latest technology, ample community space, sufficient parking, and appropriate visibility. Our goal is to keep the public informed on the latest developments for the City to have its very first standalone Library.

Data shows that libraries are good for the community. Both literacy rates and property values increase in communities with a thriving public library. The Oakley library is currently open 40 hours per week. Those hours won't increase in the existing space, as there is nowhere for additional staff to work. A new Oakley Library has been in the works for some time but has continued to hit hurdles along the way.

In 1999 the Oakley Library moved to Freedom High School with the expectation that the move would be temporary. In 2015, The New Oakley Library and Community Learning Center Committee presented a new measure to create a new Library and Learning Center in downtown Oakley. Unfortunately, Ballot Measure K was shy of getting the required votes needed for a new Library and Community Learning Center in downtown Oakley.

With 2023 came significant progress toward getting a new library in Oakley. The City and County shared the cost of demolishing the Sheriff's Substation at O'Hara Avenue and Ruby Street, with the commitment from the City to use the land for a library, or for a development that would fund the library. The City Council directed staff to focus on an option that would explore higher density, multi-family housing on the City block bound by O’Hara Avenue to the west, Acme Street to the north, 2nd Street to the east and Ruby Street to the south. The purpose of the housing portion of the project is to allow the City to utilize a Public Private Partnership (P3) model, which in this case would allow a developer to provide the City a public facility as part of a private development project. The new library would be located on the Civic Center campus, approximately in the location where the current City corporation yard sits. 

The City has identified $9.5 million to fund a new library that would be roughly 9,000 square feet. They have set a deadline of December 31, 2024 to raise additional funds to build a much larger library and community center that can house the library, a senior center and a veteran's center. A building that can house these three entities would be approximately 28,000 square feet, and would cost $28 million.