Wasilla library closed

WASILLA -- The city of Wasilla Public Library is closed for renovations until Nov. 25, and will open with a new entrance, a lift for people with disabilities, and a new circulation counter.

Wasilla manager of recreation and cultural services Bruce Urban, who started working for the city in early October, says that the library renovations started in October.

The library was scheduled not to close until the week of Nov. 17, but closed a week early due to the disturbance the construction was causing library patrons. While he acknowledges it is not usual for a library to close, the renovations done to the library will better the building for patrons in the future. The wheelchair ramp is being replaced with a lift, the circulation counter is being replaced and work to the ventilation system will relieve stuffiness in the building.

"The lift is safer than the ramp, and it provides space for more stuff," Urban said. "As soon as you walk in the building, you won't be right on the circulation counter."

The new circulation counter will not be finished by the time the library opens next week; a temporary desk will be set up until the counter is finished sometime in the first part of December. The new heating and ventilation system being installed to relieve an accumulation of carbon dioxide in the building also will not be completed before the re-opening.

Library workers are doing a complete inventory of all library materials while the library is closed; the inventory is necessary because of the new automated system, Sirsi, which will be used boroughwide early next year.

"Each item has to be inventoried against the current automated system," Urban said. "We would have had to close down for that anyway."

The city's 8,000-square-foot library was built in 1977 and last expanded in 1985. The current expansion is expected to provide around 300 square feet of additional space. Last year, Wasilla considered moving the library into a local shopping center. The plan would have doubled the library's square-footage but would have cost nearly $2 million during the course of several years, and the Wasilla City Council eventually rejected the option. The approximately $150,000 project was funded by the city's capital budget.

While the library renovations are wrapping up, other libraries throughout the borough are open. For more information on those libraries, go to www.matsulibraries.com.