this week.
The Elma Turner Library on Halifax St is closed from July 16 until July 22 for the upgrade, which will see new carpet and paint put in and a reshuffle of the library’s layout.
Library management have planned the makeover near the beginning of the financial year so they could pull funding from two years to pay for the upgrade. Carpet, paint and furniture were paid for last year while the labour will be from this year’s budget.
Circulation team leader Sarah Fry says the “nip and tuck” of the library will mean each of its 150,000 books will need to be taken off shelves, stored and repacked, a mammoth task for the 25 staff that will be working on it each day.
“It’s not just moving them but keeping them in order and storing them somewhere. The person unpacking the shelf has to think about how it will be unpacked. It’s a military operation really.”
The Stoke and Tahunanui libraries will still be open during the work for those that need their library fix and they are asking people to hold onto their books until it reopens.
Support services team leader Anna Gully says they have listened to feedback from users and will be using the break to rearrange the library, including putting all of the noisier activities in one area.
“It’s trying to balance the needs of our different customers. We’ve got people who want to Skype and talk to their friends and relatives and play a bit of music and that sort of thing and we have folk that want to do some serious study or read quietly in a corner so we are trying to create these zones,” she says.
Among some of the key features will be a language area and a quiet space where people can read magazines while overlooking the Maitai River, along with more quiet spaces at either end of the library.
