Book by book: Company moves materials from old library to new

By Kari Petrie • kpetrie@stcloudtimes.com • August 22, 2008

Rows and rows of empty metal shelving fill the cavernous second floor of the new St. Cloud Public Library. Over the next week those vacant shelves will become filled with romance, action and adventure. Books started moving to the new library Wednesday and should be in their places by Aug. 27.

 

American Interfile & Library Services Inc., a Bay Shore, N.Y., company, was hired to move the library's collections from the now-closed location at 405 St. Germain St. to the brand new library a few blocks away.

 

The company is one of six in the nation that specializes in moving libraries.

 

The city will pay American Interfile about $25,000 to move the books, said John Pepper, community relations coordinator for the Great River Regional Library.

 

Red's Transfer & Storage Co. of St. Cloud will move the library's furnishings for about $10,000.

 

When the library last moved in 1979, Minnesota National Guard members did much of the heavy lifting.

 

On Wednesday, the new children's library filled up first. The brightly colored room on the first floor is filled with books and movies, soon ready to be checked out.

 

Upstairs in the new library, more work is being done as crews start filling shelves in the fiction collection area.

 

The process started in the old library.

 

Workers take books off the shelves and put them into carts, keeping them in the same order as they are on the shelves.

 

The carts go on a truck that goes to the new library where they are unloaded.

 

Workers take the books off the cart and put them in the same order on the new shelves.

 

"It's not a complicated process," American Interfile President Gary Hall said.

 

A map showing where books need to go and in what order guides crews.

 

Hall expects his crews will need to make 27 trips to get all of the library's books to the new building.

 

They average three trips an hour. There are 250,000 materials that have to be moved to the new building.

 

Crews try to keep things going in a sort of assembly line by always having carts to fill and books to unload.

 

Moving the books is the latest point of progress for the $32 million library project.

 

Crews continue to complete finishing touches on the building, putting in the glass to enclose computer labs and finishing granite tile in the entryway.

 

The building is set to open Sept. 8, with grand opening celebrations Sept. 20.