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Library's move starts July 30

7/20/07

Normal services will be unavailable for at least two weeks

by Joy Campbell
Messenger-Inquirer

Imagine the stress of any moving day, and then imagine 10 of those days rolled into one.

That still won't touch the job that will start July 30 when the Daviess County Public Library moves from 450 Griffith Ave. to its new home at 2020 Frederica St.

The library will close for at least two weeks to accomplish the makeover, library director Debbie Mesplay said.

"There's a good chance we could extend that to three weeks," she said.

The good news for library patrons is that they can keep the books checked out during that time without running up fines, and no fines will be assessed during the first two weeks the library is open.

Mesplay said Smith & Butterfield will be moving the library collection, which includes more than 180,000 books.

"They have an extensive plan, and they guarantee they will put them in the right order in the new building," she said. "If you get those books out of order, we're in trouble."

The cost is $7 million for the construction and a little more than $9 million counting furniture for the 51,000-square-foot library.

Mesplay said the 49 full- and part-time employees will be working at both locations -- loading and unloading furniture and other items besides the books. A Sunday night crew will work to get the returned materials ready to move July 30.

Other information to keep in mind while the library is closed:

The book drop will not be accessible.
Material on hold will be available when the new library opens.
New items may be placed on hold through the library's Web site, www.dcplibrary.org.
Expect temporary outages of phone, Internet and Web services.
Check the Web site for updates.
While the library will be open before then, the grand-opening celebration will be from 2 to 5 p.m. Sept. 9.

Mesplay said the library staff has been holding up well during the planning and preparation for moving day.

"The staff has been terrific," she said. "Everybody handles change differently, and some are a little anxious and at this point are starting to worry about their particular tasks."

They showed their resilience when the circulation system went down for four days just before the July 4 holiday, Mesplay said.

The technology piece of the move will be challenging. The computer network system equipment will be moved right after closing, and the system will be re-installed and stabilized.

New circulation hardware will be tested at the vendor's site. The staff must be trained to use the new system.

"The technology side of this involves a series of stages, and if one step gets off track, difficulty reoccurs on down the line," Mesplay said.

The library has made these arrangements for its final summer children's programs:

Family Fun Night, "Snakes, Scales and Reptile Tales," is July 31 at the Owensboro Area Museum of Science and History.
Merely Players' performance of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" is Thursday at the H.L. Neblett Community Center.

Those free programs are for children ages 12 and under and their parents or caregivers.

Donations of used books and magazines for the library's book sale will not be accepted at the current library location after Monday. The library will resume taking donations at the new library after Sept. 1.

Among the main benefits Mesplay expects the public to enjoy at the new library are more parking and public access computers and an enhanced children's area.

Two full floors feature about 21,000 square feet each, and a third floor has about 8,000 square feet.

The first floor will be similar to the current library's, but the Kentucky Room will be featured prominently on the south side with a reading garden outside.

The new second floor will house a youth services program room, adult fiction, all audiovisual materials and a public lounge.

The smaller third floor will be nonpublic space used for technical services, administrative offices, computer server room and a staff lounge.