The dedication ceremony was attended by such important figures as Maya Angelou, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Franklin, and Toni Morrison.
[6] The library is a 1,200 square foot 2-story building with a single reading room upstairs and entryway and a small bookstore in the south corn crib.
[8] The rustic exterior, which evokes the "architectural vernacular of 19th-century East Tennessee, a plain language of silvery, time-worn siding, rough logs, and minimal geometries" is melded with modern Shaker-like simplicity on the interior.
[11] "I'd never seen a shape like that before and wanted to save it….once I realized that the book collection was small and the library would be used as an intimate gathering space, I came up with the concept of an elevated reading room".
[12] The interior spaces use new materials: maple and particleboard, sisal mats and recycled soybean husk tabletops designed by Lin.
[14] A critic for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer appreciates "the quiet, reductive clarity of her work" and states that Lin "has transformed a barn into a Frank Gehry-like marvel of colored light and air".
The Children's Defense Fund purpose in building the Langston Hughes Library was to "connects young leaders and activists with the glorious heritage of the struggle for freedom, and is where policy makers and community builders come to connect, recharge their spiritual and physical batteries" and act as a "training ground for the next generation of leadership, advocacy and service for children and families".
[16] Architect Maya Lin states that her mission in creating the library was to "create a fluid transition between a building and its site, so that you will always feel connected to the land"[17] "The collection specializes in publications about children's advocacy; spirituality; nonviolence; the Civil Rights Movement, with particular attention to the role of women; women's leadership; African American history, literature, and culture; African culture and history; and children's literature.
Planned improvements to the Haley Farm include "a Walking Path to Commemorate the Cloud of Witnesses for Social Justice" and an Outward Bound camp.