Sugar Grove Library to close in preparation for move

Stock up now, Sugar Grove library patrons.

Or make plans to drive to another library the next three weeks.

As of 5 p.m. Saturday, the library at 54 Snow St. will be closed, in preparation for moving to a new building at 125 S. Municipal Drive.

Interlibrary loans were suspended a few weeks ago, to make sure nothing anybody ordered came in at a time when they wouldn't be able to pick them up.

Books due Sunday and later won't incur overdue fines. The book return drop at the old library will remain available until the new building opens, and the staff will check phone messages. Requests to hold a book for pickup have been suspended.

And the limits on how many books you can take out are temporarily suspended this week, said Beverly Holmes Hughes, the library's director. "They are free to take out as many as necessary to hold them over," she said.

Patrons cards are good at other area libraries, such as Town and Country in Elburn, Yorkville and Messenger in North Aurora. (Hughes does not recommend going to Oswego, as that library is also planning a move in August.)

You can get your first peek in the new library Aug. 1, on self-guided "nooks and crannies" tours of the areas the public normally doesn't get to see. However, the books won't be on the shelves then.

Opening day, provided the new building passes a village inspection next week, is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 8.

The old library has been sold to Sugar Grove Township.

When the new library opens, patrons will be able to use it from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A cafe will sell specialty coffees from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., and cold beverages, cold prepackaged foods and regular coffee after 1 p.m.

Midwest Movers, a firm with experience moving libraries, will unshelve, pack, move and reshelve the books in the 50,000-item collection. Library staff are packing up all the other supplies and materials. They will also be learning new circulation systems, new policies and procedures on how to operate the new building and its Janice Rich Technology Center - from how to operate self-checkouts to how to turn on the lights, Hughes said.

"There is plenty to do," she said.