Leland Township Public Library will be closed from Friday, May 23 to Thursday, May 29 in preparation of moving back into the newly renovated space. The library will reopen once again on Friday, May 30, but the week-long closure will give staff and volunteers time to get materials out of storage and back on to shelves.
Starting this week, staff will begin putting shelves up throughout the library in anticipation of the over 800 boxes of books that need to be put back after being in storage for the last several months. Most of that collection will be moved into the main part of the library, as construction on a children’s room addition continues to move forward. The children’s room addition is anticipated to be completed by fall, so in the meantime, patrons will be able to utilize a temporary children’s area set up in the main library during phase two of the renovation project.
“We’ve had a great contractor who stayed on schedule and on budget, so we were able to plan this out really well,” said Mark Morton, Leland Township Library Director. “The main library isn’t going to be complete when we move in, we’re still going to have work going on, but at least we’ll be able to get out of the Munnecke room and have a lot more services than we do now.”
Library staff was able to recruit enough volunteers for the move within a week of requesting help online. On May 27, 28, and 29, dozens of volunteers from the community and from Leland Public School will be bringing in boxes of books from storage containers and moving items from the Munnecke room back into the main area of the building.
“We’re just appreciative of all the community support and all the hard work that the contractors have put in,” Morton said. “Everybody has just been so supportive of us here in the Munnecke room and loving to see the progress on the main library.”
The renovation project, which began Feb. 3, will transform the library’s payout to better serve the community’s evolving needs while addressing aging infrastructure. Plans include an expanded children’s room, a new teen area, and multiple study/ meeting rooms, all designed to enhance accessibility throughout the building. Detailed architectural renderings of the project are available on the Leland Library website, lelandlibrary. org or upon request.
