After a two-month closure, the Rialto Branch Library threw open its doors again on October 19 with a ribbon-cutting that drew kids, parents and a former NASA astronaut to West 1st Street. The $1.7 million renovation transformed the branch into the county library system's second AniMaker Space, a hands-on technology lab where visitors can operate 3D printers and program animatronics.
San Bernardino County and the City of Rialto jointly hosted the reopening celebration, as reported by the San Bernardino Sun. The funding behind the overhaul traces back to October 2025, when the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors approved a $2.6 million allocation from the Library Enhancement Reserve for the Rialto branch's AniMaker space and facility renovation, according to San Bernardino County. The project built on a countywide push to expand hands-on STEAM learning infrastructure across branches.
Rialto now joins Fontana as the only two spots in the county library system with this kind of setup. The Fontana Lewis Library and Technology Center opened the system's first AniMaker Space in 2023, a milestone the Sun's report notes made San Bernardino County the first public library system in the country to host a Garner Holt-designed animatronics lab.
What's Inside the New Space
The renovated Rialto branch now features a storytime area built around a mini animatronic character, along with an immersive globe projection and 3D projection mapping onto the walls, per the county news release cited in the Sun's report. The AniMaker system itself was developed by Garner Holt Education Through Imagination, the educational arm of Redlands-based Garner Holt Productions.
That company, founded in 1977, grew out of Garner Holt's work building rides and puppets in his parents’ garage at age 14, and now runs a 120,000-square-foot design and manufacturing headquarters that produces figures for Disney, Universal and theme parks around the world, according to SFGATE. Holt grew up in San Bernardino before building his plant in Redlands. Garner Holt, the founder and CEO of Garner Holt Productions, attended the Rialto reopening alongside the technology bearing his company's name.
An Astronaut's Welcome
Former astronaut José Hernández also showed up for the celebration, giving visitors a chance to meet him during the reopening. Hernández served as flight engineer on the 14-day Space Shuttle Discovery STS-128 mission in 2009, a flight he reached only after being accepted into NASA's astronaut program on his 12th application attempt, as detailed by the Los Angeles Times. His path from migrant farmworker to astronaut was adapted into the 2023 biopic “A Million Miles Away.”
Families turned out in force for the occasion. Four-year-old Rialto residents Juliana Leyva and Emilia Santana were among the young visitors, while Andrew Canedo read a book to his 4-year-old son, Zachariah, inside the library. Three-year-old Greyson Liongco traveled from Loma Linda for the event, and San Bernardino library assistant John Nielsen was on hand as well, according to the Sun's account of the day. Rialto Mayor Joe Baca Sr. attended with his wife, Barbara, and photographer John Valenzuela captured the reopening and its attendees for the paper.
A Father-Son Backing in District 5
Baca was elected mayor in November 2024 and now serves alongside his son, San Bernardino County Board Vice Chair Joe Baca Jr., who represents District 5, home to the Rialto branch, per San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors records. The elder Baca is a former U.S. Congressman, while his son previously worked as a teacher in Rialto before entering county government.
Part of a Countywide Tech Push
The Rialto AniMaker Space enables children, teens and adults to learn technology including operating 3D printers and programming animatronics, according to the county website's framing of the program. Garner Holt's educational arm, Garner Holt Education Through Imagination, serves more than 10,000 students annually and produces STEAM learning kits like The SongBird Mini, which lets youth program, sculpt and decorate a bird, per KVCR News.
The new lab fits into a much larger system. The San Bernardino County Library system includes branches across the county.
The Rialto AniMaker Space gives children, teens and adults opportunities to learn technology, including how to operate 3D printers and program animatronics.
