ceremonies were conducted on August 20, 1959. The new Montana Avenue branch library opened to the public on March 1, 1960. A new main Library for the 1960s In 1962, a bond issue was passed and land purchased on the corner of Sixth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard for the building of a new Main library. Construction began in February 1964. This library, designed by architects Matthew Robert Leizer and Thomas J. Russell, opened to the public in September 1965. The street address was 1343 Sixth Street. Since this new facility did not include a place for the Macdonald-Wright murals (which were painted on detachable plywood panels and were therefore removable), they were first stored in a basement and then accepted by and moved to the Smithsonian Institution. Prior to the opening of the new Main Library building in 2006, the Smithsonian Institution arranged for a long term loan of the murals to the library. The murals are installed throughout the second floor of the Main Library. In 1989, the Reference Department began answering questions via electronic mail as part of the City's innovative Public Electronic Network. The Reference Department later began interacting with the public via electronic mail. In 2000, Santa Monica Public Library became the first public library to offer Internet-based chat reference services as the pilot site of the 24/7 Reference Project, now known as OCLC's QuestionPoint service. In 2009, text messaging reference service was added. In 2000, the Library began lending DVDs. In 2005, the Library began making downloadable audiobooks available online to its cardholders. In spring of 2003, Santa Monica Public Library presented its first Citywide Reads program in which everyone in the City was encouraged to read the same book and to discuss it. The first selection was Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. A new main library for the 21st century In 1996, a formal planning process began for the expansion of the Main Library, including community focus groups, surveys, and meetings. The result was a Library Master Plan, and Moore Ruble Yudell (MRY) Architects & Planners of Santa Monica was chosen to formulate the conceptual design. Pamela Burton & Company was the landscape architect on this project. In 1998, a bond was passed by 81% to fund library improvements. In 2002, after extensive community input, the Santa Monica City Council approved MRY's design. Prior to the closing of the old