Library CLOSED Monday and Tuesday

The Visalia Library will be CLOSED on Monday, June 25th and Tuesday, June 26th.

On these days the current circulation desk area will be walled off and eventually demolished.

On Wednesday, when we open again, the public will enter the building using the temporary entrance on the north side of the building.

Sorry for the inconvenience! This will be the last closure for a while.

Walkways being poured...

Walkways are being poured this morning for the new temporary entrance at the north side of the building:

Use of the temporary entrance may begin ...

The County has procured the services of a concrete contractor. The work will begin this Friday. The work should be concluded by Monday June 25th. There may still be sprinkler and/or yard work that needs to be completed on the 25th or later.

So, we will start having customers using the temporary entrance starting on June 25th:

We do not know yet when the building contractor will put up the temporary wall in the 1976 building. It could be on June 25th. We may have to close a day or two while this is being done.

Update

On Tuesday May 29th workers started mitigating the asbestos roof lining on the old Visalia City Library building. At this point, it looks like they may be finished at the end of this week or the beginning of next week.


The new cement work on the North side of the building has been delayed a bit. This will cause a delay in moving to the new entrance by at least a week. The soonest we will be using the temporary North entrance is June 25th.

Work on the roof of the 1936 building begins

Thursday and Friday last week the reference desk was moved to its new and temporary location:

The new temporary circulation desk was set up near the emergency exit door on the north side of the building:


The new circulation desk and entrance will not be in operation until the current desk and entrance are blocked off for construction.

Here is what to expect in the coming weeks:

On Tuesday May 29th workers will start to mitigate the asbestos roof lining on the old Visalia City Library building. It is estimated that this process will take 3 weeks.

We will delay opening to the public on May 29th and May 30th until noon. This step is being taken to make sure that the public does not get exposed to asbestos. By June 1st the work on the roof will be far enough away from the courtyard that we can open the library at 10 am.

New cement work on the North side of the building will be poured. This will allow the public to use the new North entrance without walking on the grass or dirt. There will be two handicapped parking spaces added right off of the alley way and there will be a pad to locate our book-drops.

On Monday June 18th the Construction Company will mobilize. The fenced in area will dramatically increase and the courtyard will be closed. The public will be using our new North entrance.

Recent progress and what to expect this week

Collections have been moved and books shifted to accommodate the new temporary layout of the library during the construction period.

In the Juvenile area, the circulating encyclopedias and the Juvenile Spanish language materials have been moved next to the biographies behind the children’s service desk. The juvenile non-fiction collection has been compressed and the fiction collection has been moved to the opened non-fiction shelving.

The audio books have been moved from the adult area to the southernmost of the three freed juvenile aisles. The current periodicals have been moved to the next juvenile aisle.

We are currently shifting the Reference collection to the four vacated ranges on the north end of the fiction stacks.

The Library will be closed on Thursday May 17th so that some books and furnishings can be moved into storage. The two seven foot high ranges from reference will be broken down and placed in storage. The reference desk will be relocated adjacent to the north-east pillar running north-south where the microforms are presently located. Floor space will be created in the reference area through the reduction of furnishings. Items under consideration will include tables and seating on the main floor, index tables, the vertical file, map case, microform storage, microform reader/printers. It is hoped that be next week the temporary circulation desk will be installed in the former reference area. This desk will run north-south adjacent to the north-west pillar.