CHARLESTON, W.Va. — One branch of the Kanawha County Public Library system will be closing its doors for a brief time this week while another branch is opening back up.
KCPL’s St. Albans Branch Library will be closed starting this Thursday, September 5 for abatement work. It will replace old and loose floor tiles that were causing a tripping hazard.
KCPL Marketing and Development Manager Stan Howell said this comes after the St. Albans Branch has already had to undergo much other work recently to keep it up-to-date.
“We’ve had to close the library in the past couple of years, we added an elevator last August, which with the construction there had to shut the library down for a little while, we had a fire in the kitchen a couple of years ago where we had to shut down for a little bit, and our experience with those show how important library service is to the community,” said Howell.
The branch is projected to reopen with limited library service on its first floor Monday, September 23. The second floor will reopen once the work is completely finished.
During construction, the KCPL Bookmobile will offer library service on the St. Albans Branch parking lot at the following times:
. Wednesday, September 11 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
. Wednesday, September 18 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Howell said they are happy they can provide the Bookmobile there to keep the library at least somewhat up and running.
“We’re concerned when we have to shut down for any period of time and if we can alleviate that a little bit by bringing in the Bookmobile, then we really feel we have to do that,” he said.
The current St. Albans Library building opened in 1963 with the second floor being added in 1971.
Meanwhile, KCPL’s Glasgow Branch that has been undergoing maintenance work will resume service on Thursday, September 12th.
That branch has been closed since last year due to ongoing maintenance issues at the town hall in Glasgow, where the library is located. Howell said water kept coming into the building causing damage to not only the building itself but some of the books.
He said the library in Glasgow is essential because, where the town is located, there isn’t another library around for many miles.
“Not having a local library there and the ability for patrons to go in, check out a book, read a newspaper, you know, that’s important to the community, and we’re just glad we were finally able to work it out with the town to get those issues corrected,” Howell said.
While the town had to close Town Hall for a brief period of time to address the issues, the library had been closed for an entire year.
Howell said the library will reopen with just one day of service a week starting out. It will provide full-service each Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. which will include Children’s Storytime programs the first and third Thursdays of each month.