APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The library is moving to its temporary location, while construction for the redesign of the library takes place.
But packing up and moving an entire library, even just temporarily, is no easy task.
“Hundreds of thousands of books, book stacks, books that need to stay in order, which is not an easy thing to manage in a move,” said Appleton Public Library director Colleen Rortvedt.
Other businesses and organizations once housed in the current Appleton Public Library facility have already begun their moving process.
For now, the Appleton Public Library has started marking items for movers, but the actual huge undertaking will begin next month.
“We’re getting ready to stop service in this building,” said Rortvedt. “April 12 is going to be the last day where you can check out materials and use the current building, and then we’ll be taking that time to move all of the books, all of the stacks, furniture to the new location.”
The library will be closed for approximately six weeks, in order to move everything out of the current building.
The first day the library will open at the temporary location, which is the former east side Best Buy, will be May 23.
“We will have book return bins, but we’re really going to encourage people to keep our materials as long as possible, and then bring them back when we’re open in the new location,” Rortvedt said.
While at the former Best Buy temporary location, construction on the renovation and expansion for the new library will start taking place on the more than $30 million project.
The Friends of the Appleton Public Library group, however, is hoping to help out with some of the funds for it with a fundraising campaign, after a study and recommendation by consultants the Friends hired.
“They have determined that our community can support a campaign with a $12 million goal,” Friends of the Appleton Public Library executive director Kara Sullivan said. “The next steps will now be to form a committee of community members that will really go out into the community to cultivate those private donors and raise the private funds needed for the project.”
The capital campaign is expected to take 12 to 18 months.
The results of the capital campaign study will be presented to the Library Board of Trustees next Tuesday.
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