That new library is expected to be completed by the spring of 2018, according to Aly Mancini, community services director for Signal Hill.
“The new facility will be approximately three times the size of the current facility,” Mancini said, adding that it will be roughly 12,000 square feet.
She said the new library will feature specific areas for each user group— kids, teens, seniors and students— as well as a rentable space for special events and an outdoor garden area.
While that facility is being constructed, residents will have access to all the usual materials and services through the temporary location, beginning in early June.
Judy Kamei, city librarian, said the move to the community center will involve removing all the books from the shelves so that the public works department can disassemble shelves on weekends to move them to the temporary spot. Library staff will work on some Saturdays to use rented moving carts to transport the books to the center and reshelve them.
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-28-at-3.12.54-PM.png” credit=”Cory Bilicko | Signal Tribune” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”The building that has housed the Signal Hill Library and police station for decades will soon be razed to accommodate the construction of a larger library.” captionposition=”right”] Kamei and her staff of 12 are taking advantage of the transition to examine the condition and content of what the library has to offer.
“As part of the moving process, we’re re-evaluating our collection,” she said. “We are discarding dated, worn, stained materials.”
As for what constitutes dated materials, Kamei said it applies mostly to non-fiction, such as a résumé book that might characterize the World Wide Web as a new thing.
“Certainly, any health information we do have to look at very carefully,” Kamei said. “Travel books that are more than a few years old [with] changes to addresses and locations that aren’t going to be talking about the social-media aspects of travel. So that will be what we’re looking at.”
Additionally, some materials will need to be replenished. The Laura Ingalls Wilder books, for example, will need to be replaced, as they have become worn from frequent use.
“You discard because of condition, somewhat for content, and more for factual errors or innacuracies, newer materials available and declining popularity,” Kamei explained.
The librarian, who has worked in Signal Hill for a year, said no services that are normally offered will be postponed or canceled because of the transition.
“We will be open the same number of hours,” she said. “We will be checking out the same type of materials— books, DVDs, audio books. We will have computers. We will have Internet access. We will still be offering interlibrary loan. Every service now— all of our programming, our story time, book club, movie nights and such— we’ll still have. We may have to schedule them differently because we will not have a dedicated movie space in that building.”
[aesop_image imgwidth=”500px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Screen-Shot-2016-04-28-at-4.16.19-PM.png” credit=”Courtesy City of SH” align=”left” lightbox=”on” caption=”A rendering of the new Signal Hill Library” captionposition=”left”] The library staff are also in the final stages of implementing a new check-out system, which Kamei said should be fully operational during the transitional phase in the community center. The new system will offer self-renewal online in addition to other services. In the meantime, patrons are enjoying a six-week check-out time versus the usual three weeks, while the books are being relocated.
Kamei said what she is most looking forward to with the newly built library is having more space to continue offering the same services, particularly a considerably larger children’s area.
One individual who can attest to the importance of libraries for children is Signal Hill City Councilmember Tina Hansen, who has likely been the most vocal supporter of the city acquring a new library.
“As a child, my local library was a place to escape and feel safe,” she told the Signal Tribune. “I was pretty shy as a child and felt comfortable in the world of books. Eventually, I grew out of my shyness, but I never grew out of my love of reading and my pleasure at losing myself in a book, wondering what is going to happen next.”
The councilmember believes the new library will benefit the entire community.
“No matter what your age or social background or interests, the library will have something for you,” she said. “From new books and audio materials, to a children’s area of play and learning to a place to discover our city’s history, to a place to ‘plug in’ and work or explore the Internet, our library will have that for our residents. I also believe it will become a destination library because of its interior and exterior design and will bring others into our community and lead to their discovery of what a great place Signal Hill is to live, work and play in.”
