Moving an entire library branch, complete with 30,000 books, is tougher than your average relocation.
The Greater Victoria Public Library is in the process of moving its Emily Carr branch just across the road, but that road happens to be busy Blanshard Street. The branch’s new location is at the Uptown centre.
The GVPL is leaving behind the site that served as the Emily Carr branch — one of 10 branches in the library system — since 1972. The move is something of a nod to the past, since the Emily Carr branch originally opened in 1966 in Town & Country shopping centre, Uptown’s predecessor.
The branch closed its doors at 3500 Blanshard St. on Sunday and is set for a Jan. 6 reopening at #101-3521 Blanshard St. Moving the branch was the No. 1 priority in the GVPL’s long-range facilities plan. The old location lacked elevator access, affecting accessibility of washrooms, and had inefficient heating and cooling systems.
A special feature of the new surroundings will be decor based on Emily Carr’s art.
“The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has given us permission to do some reproductions on our walls of Emily Carr’s work,” said library spokeswoman Alyssa Polinsky. “We’ve got the Odds and Ends piece and Blue Sky, so it’s going to look fabulous.”
The first step in the move was to ship off the furniture and computers, Polinsky said. Add all of the books and other library materials and the job is “quite an undertaking,” she said.
People have been asking how many boxes are needed to pack all the books, but boxes aren’t part of the plan, Polinsky said.
“We put them on a cart and we get them all ready so we can just put them on the shelf when we get there. It’s all shrink-wrapped.”
Despite the proximity to Uptown, the book-laden carts are being trucked over in the interest of doing things in the safest and fastest way.
The highly organized move includes colour-coding the carts so that they end up exactly where they are supposed to go. “It’s down to a science,” Polinsky said.
Although the Uptown location is a little smaller than its predecessor, “it’s much more flexible space,” Polinsky said. A lot of floor space will be freed up by an automated handling system for book returns that replaces the old manual system.
The book-return chute at the old Emily Carr branch will remain open until Jan. 6, and books can also be taken to any other branch.
Branch patrons can look forward to expanded hours with the addition of a Monday opening.
