Services still offered, but books and facility shut down for up to 18 months due to high school construction
The Post has learned that the Stuart MacPherson Public Library will be closing its doors on Dec. 3 for a possible 18-month hiatus.
The temporary closure is due to the construction on the Bold Center high school that will share space with the library.
While the facility will be closing and the books will be coming off the shelves during the construction period, library officials are ensuring the public that even without the actual library space, almost all library programming will remain in place.
"We unfortunately won't have our nice home and shelves for folks to browse, but we will be offering inter-library loaning and we will be running all of our programs," said board Chair Loraine Anderton.
The core of the library will shift to the ViewPoint Room at the Bold Center, with children's books and four computer pods still available for use, along with a "new releases" shelf and the newly integrated "Career Center". Homeschool programs and similar programs that utilize the library's Smartboards will be run out of the former "spin-class room" also located in the Bold Center.
The massive relocation, which comes just a year after the library was moved from McArthur Place to the Bold Center, will take almost a month for staff to pack up all of the books and media materials that fill the 12,000 sq.ft facility.
"It will be a big job to move all of our supplies, but we understand the importance of building the high school and we want to help bring the best education experience to this community," Anderton said.
The current plans for the Bold Center High School call for a second floor to be added directly above the library, as well as several entrances that will connect the storied shelves to the incoming school. Safety concerns during the construction period led to the decision to vacate the current library space, and move all of the contents to a more secure location. And while patrons have initially shown some disappointment, Anderton explained that this temporary move is a necessary step to ensure the construction of the high school continues its course.
"We have had plenty of new patrons join the library in the past year, we're hoping that residents understand that this is only a temporary move," Anderton said.
It was not known on Friday afternoon whether staffing at the library would be affected or how existing library memberships would be handled. More answers are expected in the coming weeks as library officials, municipal leaders and construction representatives formally iron out plans. Events scheduled for the library in early December, including a chocolate-making seminar and a family movie event may have to be re-scheduled or relocated.
The new high school was approved for funding more than a year ago, with detailed designs, prepared with local input, given to by the provincial government earlier this year.
The POST will have much more information, as well as comments from county councillors on the library closure in Tuesday's edition.
As the pages turn
The library is named after the late Stuart MacPherson, a local teacher, actor and long-term library staff member.
The library moved from a cramped 3,000 sq.ft. basement at McArthur Place in the fall of 2011 to the Bold Center.
The Bold Center library space is 12,000 sq. ft.
The size of the library is in accordance with 'library world' guidelines suggesting one-square-foot for every resident of the immediate area
Lac La Biche County council included the allocation of $3.7 million for the construction of the Bold Center library space in their 2010 budget.
The new library was always billed to be a joint-use facility, shared with the proposed school(s) that were to be added to the Bold Center.
Friends of the Library fundraising committee set and reached a $200,000 target to pay for shelving, furniture and accessories for the Bold Center library.
New shelving alone to house more than 100,000 materials, cost $90,000 and had to be professionally installed last year.
