Library ‘star’ enters exciting new phase
IN THE CITY
by Lisa Neal Shaw
Presque Isle, Maine, has been known as “The Star City of the Northeast” (or the more familiar “The Star City”) since 1965.
Bill McKeen, then art director at WAGM-TV, won a slogan contest run by the Presque Isle Chamber of Commerce. According to the story run in the Star-Herald on October 14, 1965, the word “star” portrays, among other things, “something to look up to” and “something to navigate by.”
Stars also, on occasion, contract and expand. Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library is one such star in a city of things to look up to and navigate by. Community members have watched over the last several months as the library building has gone through a supernova stage, rapidly expanding and ejecting part of its old outer shell. Supernovas tend to draw a great deal of attention, making an object that would normally be one in a sea of stars into a highly visible attraction. Our patrons have been very excited to see the building grow and speculate about how it will all look when it’s done.
Some supernovas then go into a neutron star phase, where the totality of their mass suddenly collapses into itself in a much tighter and more dense body, which begins to move very rapidly. That’s the next phase the library is entering. Over the next couple of weeks, the services, equipment and materials our patrons regularly access will be relocated from current physical library location to the new addition. Patrons will finally be able to see and use the much anticipated elevator. The new gallery will be put to temporary use as a “mini-library,” putting forefront the library’s most highly requested materials and services.
While we operate out of the new addition, our construction crew will effectively swap places with us and begin working on renovations and improvements to the current physical library. This will mean shielding off the current section and operating wholly out of the new section for an estimated eight or so weeks. The operational area will be smaller overall during that time, and staff and material positioning will be set to work in the most efficient manner possible. We will be a neutron star.
Here’s how we expect that it will look to you, the community member. On Monday, May 16, the library building will close to foot traffic while the staff and several wonderful teams of volunteers move books and other materials, shelving, desks, public access computers, telephones, office equipment and other heavy furnishings from the current section to the new section. This is a process that will require a week of lifting, logistics and placement. The staff will ensure that patron computers are functioning in their new placement, that the most readily requested materials are placed in a manner that is easy to navigate, and that as many as possible of the other items the community needs are ready to use. This physical closure will last from May 16 through May 22, with the doors reopening on Monday, May 23. During that week, however, please be assured that library staff will be available to answer telephone queries; e-mail, instant message and other electronic queries; and will even attempt to deliver materials curbside where there is a high priority need. Your checked out items will not accrue fines, the downloadable audio and ebook library will still operate as always, and there will still be a regularly scheduled offsite story time on Saturday.
When the library reopens its doors on May 23, we will have staff rotating throughout the new part to facilitate the flow of services. To accomplish this, we will operate Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Our Sunday staff will temporarily move their service hours to earlier in the week to help customers get comfortable with the new operational layout.
When the construction project is completed, a grand opening will be held, and the library will become a pulsar. Pulsar stars emit bright beams of light, spin at a regular and predictable manner, and are reliable tools of navigation for astronomers. So, too, will the library fully resume the normal and predictable times of operations and service that the community has grown to expect. The building will be open in its entirety, the normal week resumed, with greater and better access to all the services the library offers it citizens and visitors.
The library staff are enormously grateful for the encouragement and patience extended by all our visitors and supporters and to the construction crew who have worked in a friendly and cooperative manner to help make this all happen with minimal interruption of service. If you have any questions or thoughts you would like to share, please call the library at 764-2571 or e-mail Sonja Plummer-Morgan at sonjapmorgan@presqueislelibrary.or, Dianna Leighton at diannaleighton@presqueislelibrary.org or me. You can also follow library updates through Presque Isle Librarians on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Lisa Neal Shaw is a reference librarian at the Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library. She can be reached at 764-2571 or via e-mail at lisanealshaw@presqueislelibrary.org.
