During the 03/15/2022 Library Board meeting, the Board received a brief update on the library project and the library’s move to the temporary location.
Library Director Colleen Rortvedt touched on the fact that the library had not been awarded the $11 million grant they had applied for. “So, we were not awarded a state neighborhood investment fund grant. While, yes, that was disappointing we really—while we requested a lot from that grant (we had submitted an $11 million grant) we didn’t incorporate that into our planning assumptions. So, what we had incorporated into some of our planning assumptions was a million dollars. So that certainly reduces any gap that needs to be accommodated in the overall project budget.”
The results of the Friends of the Appleton Public Library campaign feasibility study were positive, so they were not completed devested that they were not awarded the grant.
A board member asked if they had approached any banks to see if they would be interested in providing the bridge loan that had been mentioned along with the feasibility study.
Director Rortvadt said that had been feasibility study interviews with individuals from financial institutions and that the response from those individuals had been positive.
The Library’s Assistant Director Tasha Saecker then gave an update on the library’s temporary location. They will be moving into the former Best Buy location at 2411 S. Kensington Drive.
The site is currently undergoing renovation by Boldt Construction. Wall are being put up which will create areas for returns, technical services space, a little office for the three supervisors to share, and a staff workroom. The walls don’t reach all the way to the high ceilings so they are going to have to be quieter than usual in their workspaces.
Book drops have been ordered for both the temporary Kensington location and the Oneida Street location. Those should be arriving in early-to-mid April. The external book drop is necessary for the temporary location because they can’t cut big holes in the external wall of a rental location. The external drop for the Oneida Street location will be placed outside of the fencing while construction is ongoing because staff was warned that if they did not provide a drop box, people would leave things on the ground and simply tell staff it was returned. Tasha noted that that was something that happens when their current book drop gets overfull, so they believe the warning is accurate. [Wow. People can do ridiculously stupid things sometimes.]
At the temporary location they plan to have 12 adult public computers and 2 children’s public computers which is quite a reduction from what they currently offer. They will also reduce the number of adult service desks by 1 at the temporary location. Work flows through the library will be changing with staff working from home and those who are working on site adapting to the much smaller spaces behind the scenes.
They will take advantage of the time at the temporary location to explore some different models of service. They were also looking at brand identity and brand voice and how they bring that to life through their service.
They will also have new scheduling software for service desks that will automate some parts because right now they are running on a homemade system that is done entirely bad hand and then shared online with staff.
They will continue to right size the collection for the new library.
They will offer programming in spaces outside the library and she said they should have more information about that at the April Library Board meeting.
They were working on ways to keep library staff engaged and interacting with one another despite being separated. Because they will be working different shifts and people won’t be in the building at the same time, they are making sure they will have time to still be a team.
She acknowledged that these were huge changes. Some staff members had been working their jobs for 20 years and have their routine and processes down cold, but now everything will be thrown into chaos for 18 months. The temporary location was not an ideal space, but staff’s willingness to continue to be curious and learn on the fly was admirable. “I think everybody’s feeling really positive about where we’re going eventually.” She compared the move to the temporary location as camping for 18 months.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=920147&GUID=DFBE4C3E-603F-4A30-A70F-3E49392DD4A5
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