The Indian Trails Public Library has begun an historic one-year renovation of its 35-year-old Wheeling location, and officials are currently moving 89,000 of its most popular items to a temporary location in Buffalo Grove.
The staff has spent the past several days arranging shelves and loading books onto them, with the knowledge that they will have to undo this work in about a year. The temporary location is scheduled to open April 4 at 70 W. Dundee Road.
“This week is the big push to get everything moved over here and set up,” executive director Brian Shepard said. “Going by what our patrons want, we’ve brought the best of the best of our materials.”
While $14.4 million worth of renovations and a 15,000-square-foot addition take place in Wheeling, the top 40 percent of the facility’s materials will be ready for checkout in the 14,000-square-foot former home of the Community Thread resale store.
The collection will include a bit of everything, spokeswoman Susan Dennison said: music, videos, books in foreign languages, and even space for speakers, small live performances and kids’ activities.
This week, as Dennison and Shepard walked beneath a skylight at the new location, ceiling panels were moved out of place as workers installed the wires that the banks of computers will need.
The temporary location will have a wireless Internet system, Shepard said, but it may not be the best place to go for a silent work or study space.
“The reality is, in 14,000 square feet, quiet will probably be a little harder to come by,” Shepard said.
Indian Trails’ Prospect Heights location is operating at extended hours during the two-week move.
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And while the move has not been as difficult as Dennison and Shepard said they feared, it has been more complicated than just packing and sorting.
Every cartful of tomes had to be shrink-wrapped, in case of rain. The storefront’s old carpet needed a shampooing. And besides calculating which items visitors have checked out the most, in each category, the staff has to update the catalogue to reflect which items made the cut, and which items will spend a year in a climate-controlled warehouse in Hanover Park.
All this work was done by a slightly shrunken staff, Shepard said. Seven former employees have either retired or taken jobs elsewhere, he said, and none of those openings, all part-time, have been filled. The staff is now 87 people, about half of that part-time, Shepard said.
Back in Wheeling, a “groundbreaking” ceremony of sorts is scheduled for April 2. During that event, anyone with a fond memory of the original building will be welcome to walk inside and write that memory on any of the walls. Dennison said the staff will photograph all the markings, before tearing the walls down to start the renovation.
“It’s emotional for people who grew up with this library,” Dennison said.
But a new generation of memories should begin in the spring of 2017, when the Indian Trails staff will have to shrink-wrap all 89,000 items and rework the digital catalogue again, when everything is brought back to Wheeling. Shepard said they are looking forward to that round of extra work.
“I think there will be tremendous excitement when that day comes,” Shepard said.
Twitter: @RonnieAtPioneer