Ouachita Parish Library Opens $8.3M Main Branch

The relocated main branch at 1000 Oliver Road opened to the public on Oct. 29 after an $8.3-million rehabilitation.

Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Openings & Closings

Low, modern single-story library building with a broad glass entrance and overhanging roof, set on a flat lawn lined with oaks and pines under a clear sky. — Ouachita Parish Public Library opened its $8.3-million main branch at 1000 Oliver Road in Monroe on Oct. 29, after a rehabilitation that came in $700,000 under budget. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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Ouachita Parish Public Library opened its $8.3-million main branch at 1000 Oliver Road on Oct. 29, with a grand opening ceremony. The library also announced its updated slogan, "Think Outside the Book."

Why it matters

The old main branch had outgrown its one-room space as the library system kept expanding, and the new facility gives Monroe-area residents a larger central location. The project came in $700,000 under budget.

The Police Jury paid $2.86 million for the building in 2023 and spent $8.3 million on rehabilitation, finishing $700,000 under budget. Since the Oct. 1 soft launch, about 500 people have applied for library cards and 470 have signed up to use a meeting room.

The players

Ouachita Parish Public Library

The parish library system operates ten branches and a bookmobile and circulates more than one million items per year.

Ouachita Parish Police Jury

The parish governing body bought the Oliver Road building in 2023 and funded its rehabilitation into the new main branch.

The details

The new main branch includes a makerspace, a podcast and media room, high-tech meeting rooms, an expanded computer classroom, a children's area, a teen space, a telehealth booth, and a genealogy and special collections area. Architect Land 3 Architect and Triad Builders of Ruston handled the relocation project.

1916: The parish library first opened with a one-room main branch.
2023: The Ouachita Parish Police Jury bought the Oliver Road building for $2.86 million.
March: Officials broke ground on the main branch with Monroe officials.
Oct. 1: The main branch began a soft launch.
Oct. 29: The main branch officially opened with a grand opening ceremony.

Legacy Expansion

The Ouachita Parish library first opened in 1916 with a single one-room main branch and has since grown into a ten-branch system with a bookmobile. The Oliver Road facility represents the latest step in that expansion, now that the old main branch had outgrown its space.

Residents can now apply for library cards and reserve meeting rooms at the Oliver Road branch, which offers a makerspace, a teen space, and a telehealth booth. The expanded computer classroom and genealogy collections are available to visitors of the main branch.

The takeaway

Residents seeking a larger central library space now have access to expanded programs at the Oliver Road branch, from a makerspace to genealogy research.