In two weeks, the Pryor Library will close on Graham Ave, pack up and move to our temporary location in the Graham Community Building (GCB). CMS Willowbrook, our construction management company, worked really hard to keep us open, but there’s no cost-effective way to keep staff and patrons safe while they demolish ceilings and install a sprinkler system.
When we reopen in the GCB on March 1st, we’ll have new hours and be a much smaller operation than anyone is used to. The plan is still to take eight shelving units and fill them with the most-likely-to-be-needed items from each part of our collection. We will continue to order and process new materials while we’re at the GCB, so there will be new things to check out while we’re there.
Because our collection will be so much smaller during this time, we will likely lower the number of items you can have on your card from 20 to about 5. (The Board will make that decision later this month.) Otherwise no other policies will change. We’ll have internet/wifi and printing services available as well as our microfilm collection for genealogy research. We’re also increasing our ebook and digital audiobook ordering through Overdrive/Libby.
The move to and operations from a smaller location will be frustrating for everyone, but it will have been worth it when we get back into our newly remodeled and expanded library sometime this fall. I am so incredibly grateful for the staff at the Library and at City Hall who are making my job so much easier.
This is a daunting project that has more moving parts than I can count, but the Library staff has taken ownership of the planning and packing in their areas of expertise while still completing their normal tasks. I could not have asked for a better group of people to make this move with.