Tomorrow is a big day for the Georgetown Library. The main branch on Cleland Street will open its doors to the public for the first time in more than a year! It’s hard to say who’s more excited – the staff or the patrons.
“It has been almost 14 months since we greeted people at this facility and we have been missing them,” said Library Director Dwight McInvaill. “We can’t wait to see them start walking through those doors again, and I know they’re going to be excited by what they see.”
He said he hears almost daily from people eager for the reopening.
The library closed last summer for an extensive renovation project. The 34-year-old facility opened in 1989 and up until now had seen only minor renovations back in 2007. In addition to new flooring, lighting, paint, fixtures and furniture, the renovation included a 3,120-foot expansion. This new area houses a bigger and better auditorium, as well as office spaces, which allowed more of the existing library space to be used for books and programming.
“I know people will be so happy to see our new auditorium, our new picture hanging gallery, the new digital displays on the walls, our new public services desks and our beautiful new foyer,” McInvaill said. “I think they’ll see it was worth the wait.”
But while all services will be available, he wants people to understand that this summer will be a soft opening. Unfortunately, the library is still waiting for new furniture and shelving to be delivered, and new landscaping to be installed in front of the building. Plans are to replace the old bushes out front, but bad weather has made it difficult for contractors to get the work done.
“We’ve got some shelves that don’t have tops on them. We’re having to use some old furniture. We’ve got some books still in boxes and the story time room is still being used for storage while we wait for more shelving to be installed,” McInvaill said. “It’s not perfect yet, and we’ll have a big grand opening at the end of October or the beginning of November when those things have been taken care of. But we wanted to open up as soon as possible.”
The Georgetown branch will be open from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The branch is closed on Sundays.
McInvaill said he wants to extend a special thank you to the library staff and volunteers who have worked so hard to get the library ready to reopen.
“We have such a good team and so much work has gone into this,” he said. “They have packed boxes and toted furniture and made sure all of our 90,000 books are in picture perfect order on the shelves. An extreme amount of work and effort has gone into this.”