About Us

The Happy Valley Library’s mission is to provide and promote informational, educational, cultural, and recreational materials, and resources to enhance the economic, social and cultural vitality of the community. This mission propels the library to be responsive to the needs of the community with welcoming environments, a broad range of relevant programs and materials in a variety of formats and highly qualified, customer-focused employees. 

A Brief History of Happy Valley Library

Our library’s story began in 1981 about 3.5 miles west of its current location at the Clackamas Town Center. Starting with the opening of the shopping mall in March of 1981, Clackamas County began operating a small popular reading library on the lower level of the mall near the ice rink. This library was called the Clackamas Town Center Library. In April of 1996, the library moved to a newly remodeled 7,790 square foot leased space in the northeast corner of the mall parking lot. This new location was named the Clackamas Corner Library.  

It soon became apparent that this space was still not large enough to serve the rapidly growing population east of Interstate 205. Budget cuts and a failed library levy in the 2000s prevented the library from being able to build a new library building for nearly 14 years.  

A 2008 Clackamas County ballot measure created a permanent library district for residents of the county. As part of the measure, the County announced their plan to build a new library which would ultimately be owned and operated by the City of Happy Valley and would serve the residents of Happy Valley, Damascus, and the surrounding unincorporated Clackamas area. 

The Sunnyside Village Community Center, already owned by Clackamas County and previously used by the North Clackamas School District for overflow classrooms, was expanded to create about 17,000 square feet of library space. The Clackamas Corner Library closed and moved to this new location where it became the Sunnyside Library. The Sunnyside Library opened its doors in March of 2012.  

In July of 2015 the City of Happy Valley began operating the library. It was then that our Library became the Happy Valley Library. In 2018 the library’s strategic plan surveyed the community and identified the need to expand the library. In 2023 we broke ground for a 10,000+ square foot expansion to create program, community and study rooms, and more restrooms to serve the library’s fast-growing service area of Happy Valley, Damascus, and Unincorporated Clackamas County.