The Meaford Public Library re-opened Tuesday morning with new shelving and expanded room for a larger collection.

The Library was closed for a week as staff packed up books and took down old shelving units.

Once that process was finished, new and larger shelves arrived and were built. Once the shelves were up, library staff were busy moving the books back into place and expanding and changing various areas of the library.

Library CEO Rita Orr said staff packed up 522 boxes of books.

“They were stacked double layers up and down, up and down everywhere. I still can’t believe we did that,” said Orr, during an interview last Friday afternoon.

“In the middle of it all I was finding books for Inter-Library loans,” joked Inter-Library Loans Officer Lynne Fascinato.

Orr said Marion Mowers would start at the library at 6 a.m. each day and staff would work on the project the entire day. Orr said she would usually leave the facility around 8 p.m.

Last Tuesday, the shelf builders arrived and constructed the shelves.

“There were six of them. I can’t believe how fast they did it,” said Orr.

The new shelving units on the one side of the library give the facility a whole new feel. Patrons visiting the facility will be surprised by the size of the shelves. The shelves also can accommodate every size of book. On the new shelves, there will be no large books hanging over the side. The shelves can be moved in the event the Library moves to a new facility.

“It looks more like a library,” Orr said. “These shelves make you want to take books up,” she added.
The shelves are a lighter coloured wood and they help brighten up the room significantly.

“We’ve been able to make more room for the fiction section,” said Orr. “That’s what people have been saying for a while: the library needs more fiction,” she said.

On Friday staff were busy expanding the fiction section and opening up more room in the resource room at the library.

“These shelves are grounded, they have a good solid foundation,” said Orr. “Hopefully people will like them,” she said.

The shelves certainly give the library a new look. They take up more floor space than the shelves that were in place previously. However, they are also open at the end closest to the wall. The open endings will allow patrons freer access to roam around and browse each different section.

“It’s such a reward. This is a real morale booster for the staff,” said Orr, who joked that this project is the third time she has packed up and then re-shelved books during her career as a Librarian.
The total shelving project cost $18,000. The Library Board divided the project between the 2007 and the 2008 budgets. In addition the library was able to fundraise $2,000 and received a provincial Literacy Grant to help pay for the project. The library also continues to fundraise to help pay for the shelves.

The project took a lot more time than just the few days the library was closed. In anticipation of the new shelves staff began weeding older books out of the collection.

“We weeded out so many books we’re having a sale,” said Fascinato.

Orr said the weeding process started last summer. She said some of the books the staff found were 25-30 years old.

“It was time for them to be replaced,” she said. In addition damaged books, books with yellow pages or books found with mould in them were removed. “Some of them turn brittle, because the air quality in this building is poor,” she said.

The Library has had an automated cataloging system for seven years. Orr said if a book hasn’t been checked out during that time it is weeded out, unless it’s a classic work by a major author. The library’s collection stands at approximately 36,000 volumes. Orr said a library of Meaford’s size should have 38,000 volumes. However, the space in the building doesn’t allow that number.

When Orr became CEO the collection numbered approximately 26,000. Taking older books out of circulation allows the library to constantly update the collection with new material.

The sale of old books should be held at the end of February. Orr said the last time the Library held a sale, it raised over $700.