CAPE ELIZABETH – Normal operations at Thomas Memorial Library will begin to be disrupted next month as the staff prepares for a temporary move to the former Spurwink School.
A long-awaited renovation and expansion of the 102-year-old building is scheduled to begin early next spring after voters in Cape Elizabeth approved a $4 million bond in November to update the aging library, made up mostly of the original Pond Cove School on Scott Dyer Road.
According to Jay Scherma, library director, the existing library will be closed from Jan. 5-12 while staff spends time moving furniture, equipment and a portion of the collection to the former Spurwink School – now the children’s section – where the library will operate for the next 10 months. It will remain open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays until 8:30 p.m.
“Once we make the transition into our temporary headquarters in the Spurwink building, we plan to resume the library’s normal operations almost completely,” Scherma said.
Scherma said patrons should expect irregular library accessibility for most of January. A majority of the regularly scheduled children’s and adult programs will not be offered until staff can settle in at the temporary location, he said.
“With the exception of our Read to a Dog program, we have suspended all programming during January to allow staff the opportunity to acclimate to their new environment and to be more fully available to the public during this initial transition,” said Scherma.
The Read to a Dog program is held Wednesday from 3:15-5 p.m. and Thursday from 3:30-5:15 p.m.
While the staff plans to put about half of the library’s collection – about 24,000 titles – in storage, Scherma said, patrons would still be able to find the newest and most popular titles on the shelves at the temporary location. Once the move to Spurwink School is complete, patrons will also be able to access the collection through an interlibrary loan. A full range of programs will also be available, said Scherma.
“We will rely heavily on interlibrary loan to compensate for the missing parts of the catalog that patrons may be looking for,” he said.
Meanwhile, the public phase of a capital campaign to raise $700,000 for library furniture, fixtures and equipment to outfit the new library, which launched in November, is well under way, said Frank Governali, a member of the building committee and the Capital Campaign Committee.
Last week, he said, about $680,000 had been raised toward the fundraising effort, including a $10,000 matching gift from the Thomas Memorial Library Foundation.
“We are about $20,000 away from our goal,” Governali said. “It’s been really gratifying to get such broad participation. Right now, almost 250 households have contributed” to the campaign.
If the committee exceeds its $700,000 goal, Governali said, any additional money would be used specifically to help fund future programs at the newly renovated library.
“Since construction will continue through 2015 we will be keeping (the campaign) open so people can keep contributing,” Governali said.
According to Governali, the goal of the library project is “to create an attractive and efficient facility that blends in well with its surroundings, maximizes the benefits of the library’s central location, ensures easy access to patrons and is flexible enough to meet changing library and community needs long into the future.”
In February, children’s story hours and evening adult programs will be held upstairs in the existing Children’s Room of the library. Larger adult programs will take place in the media centers at the schools.
“The locations of the adult events will be posted as they are scheduled, so folks should keep a close eye on our website and newsletter,” Scherma said.
The library will completely shut down for the Jan. 5-12 move, said Scherma, as it will require staff to unload shelves and dismantle them, move them to what is now the library’s Community Room, reassemble the shelves and reload them with books and audio-visual items.
During construction, said Scherma, adult library materials and services will be relocated to what is now the Community Room, the children’s library programs will take place in what is now the picture book area of the children’s library, and young adult materials will be available in what is now the children’s general fiction section.
The library plan, created by Reed & Co. Architecture of Portland, calls for preserving and renovating the most prominent section of the library – the former Pond Cove School, built in 1912 – and making it energy efficient, as well as constructing a two-story addition that will replace the 1985 connector building. While the lower level of the new building will become the new children’s area and provide space for meetings and programs, the upper level of the library will house the adult and young adult collections, study spaces and media labs.
Renovations also include creating a pedestrian connection between the library and the adjacent elementary school, an outdoor play space, a reading garden and an outdoor stage for performances. The parking lot will also be expanded to 53 spaces and redesigned.
According to Molly MacAuslan, chairwoman of the library’s building committee, new construction will increase the overall size of the library from 14,500 to 16,000 square feet, and create nearly 40 percent more useable space. The Thomas Memorial Library hasn’t been modernized in almost 30 years, she said.
Scherma said a temporary parking lot was built on the property so patrons could continue to access the library while the construction crew prepares for the upcoming renovation. Because the construction of the new two-story building cannot be done until the 1985 connector building is demolished, the staff will be asking visitors to use the porch entrance to the Spurwink building when it reopens in the temporary space next month.
“This is a very complex project with many moving pieces,” said Scherma. “We are preparing a temporary site and staging all the necessary preliminary steps for the main renovation project while we remain open to the public.”
Zachau Construction of Freeport is expected to break ground on the project in early spring 2015 and wrap up construction by the end of the year.
“The crew is making great progress, and I am confident we will be ready for the move the week of Jan. 5,” said Scherma.
The temporary library space is scheduled to reopen to the public on Tuesday, Jan. 13. Scherma said those with mobility issues are encouraged to contact the library, at 799-1720 or jscherma@thomas.lib.me.us, if they have trouble accessing the front entrance to the Spurwink School during construction.
A CLOSER LOOK
Through Dec. 31, these programs will be offered at the Thomas Memorial Library:
Stay and Play, for birth – age 3, Wednesday and Friday,
10 a.m.-noon.
Stay and Play, for ages 3-5, Monday and Tuesday,
10 a.m.-noon.
Read to a Dog Program, Winston on Wednesday,
3:15-5 p.m.; Maddie on
Thursday, 3:30-5:15 p.m.
For more information, see
www.thomasmemoriallibrary.org/
childrens-programs/.
The Thomas Memorial Library will be undergoing changes starting in January when items in the collection will be transferred into a temporary space. Above is an artist’s rendering of the final design.
Comments are no longer available on this story