What are you doing this weekend? The new San Diego Central Library

On the library’s ground floor near the entrance is a cleverly stocked gift shop. Among the items arrayed for the opening: a vintage royal manual typewriter, priced at $75.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Besides bean-bag chairs and a snack area, the library’s teen center features bookshelves faced with chalkboard material, awaiting chalked contributions.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

In a bid to engage high-school readers, the new library’s second floor includes the Pauline Foster Teen Center, a 3,800-square-foot territory with two study rooms, gaming room, 14 computers and a snack area. Though the bean-bag chairs may tempt visitors of all ages, only teens are allowed in the area.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The library’s ninth floor includes a 3,000-square-foot gallery space, shown here, along with a well-appointed rare books room and a suite for special events.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Artist Yoram Wolberger’s bronze and chrome sculpture “Male Baseball #1” is on display in an area at San Diego’s new Central Library, where the eighth floor houses the collection of the Society for American Baseball Research, Ted Williams Chapter -- including books, memorabilia, photos and other display items.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Architect Rob Wellington Quigley stands in the eighth-floor reading room of the new library. Quigley calls the glass room, which is three stories high, “the people’s penthouse.” Metalwork outside provides shade that shifts shapes by the hour.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Art is integrated throughout San Diego’s new Central Library, beginning with the bold colors and playful shapes of “Corpus Callosum,” by artists Einar and Jamex de la Torre. The artwork is visible through the translucent elevator walls.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

The new library holds about 3.2 million books, along with more than 500,000 discs, cassettes, records and e-books. You pass these volumes, on the second floor, as you make your way toward the reading room on the eighth floor.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

A signature arch spans the ground floor of the new library, echoing the design of San Diego’s 18th-century mission, the first in California’s mission system. This shot was taken in late September, as workers applied final touches before the building opened to the public.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

San Diego’s long-awaited, $185-million, nine-story Central Library opened for business Sept. 30. Architect Rob Wellington Quigley said the dome was in part inspired by the dome of the California Building, which has been a marquee building in Balboa Park since the 1915 Panama-California Exposition.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)