Rossland’s library renovation is pretty well complete — now all they need are their books back.
All 10,000 of them.
“I’m sure they’ll all come back, we have a record, so we can find these people,” jokes library director Bev Rintoul. “It’ll be fine.”
The library asked Rosslanders to take out library books last August — as many as they could take — and help store them while renovations took place in the building. Two-thirds of the library’s collection went out to private homes during the renovation, saving the library thousands in storage costs.
Now that the work is all but complete, the library’s called out for the books to be returned for re-shelving.
It’s the last big job that has to be done before the library re-opens next Tuesday, Dec. 11.
Rintoul says she expects it will be a busy day.
“People have been coming up to me on the street, regularly, saying ‘When are you opening again? I’ve read all my books,'” she says. “They’ve really been waiting for us to open.
“And the people who have been coming by have been really excited. People have been missing us.”
The $265,000 renovation saw some major rearranging of space to make the library more efficient. The two children’s sections have been amalgamated into one space, the circulation desk is centrally located now, a new meeting room has been built and a second space converted into a multi-purpose room.
“In 2017 we had 50,000 visits, which is a lot,” says Rintoul. “So this is for better space management. There were some corners of the library that just weren’t being used properly, so we are hoping this will help improve that.”
Rintoul says there were no big surprises during the renovation — no hidden mould or structural defects uncovered. Just typical delays getting equipment delivered. Now, it’s just a matter of getting the 15,000 items in the library collection back on display, and opening the doors.
But nothing special is planned to mark the occassion.
“It’s just going to be normal service,” says Rintoul. “We’re just going to open that day. We’ll have a big party in January.”
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