How the St. Charles library is coordinating a major renovation amid COVID-19

Hundreds of thousands of books, audiovisual materials and other items were packed up in early March, ready to be relocated across town in preparation for an $18.6 million expansion and renovation of the St. Charles Public Library.

A public groundbreaking ceremony was planned for April 5. The library's temporary space at the former Haines Middle School was scheduled to open a day later. And though operations would be a little abnormal during the more than yearlong construction project, library Director Edith Craig was confident patrons would retain full access to its materials and services.

Then the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Construction on the facility at 1 S. Sixth Ave. began as scheduled - sans ceremony - and has remained on track, Craig said. Movers relocated the entire collection. But in-person library operations and programs were shut down for months to comply with COVID-19 restrictions.

As agencies begin to reopen statewide in Phase 4 of the Restore Illinois plan, she said, St. Charles library leaders now face a unique challenge: navigating the throes of a health crisis in an unfamiliar and significantly smaller space.

"Not only were we coming back to new processes and safety measures, but there were staff who had never walked through this building before," Craig said. "We still had things packed at the time. It was a double whammy for us."

The library maintained online and phone resources through the stay-at-home order, and employees worked remotely. "We were still busy behind the scenes," she said.

When they returned to work - in shifts to comply with social distancing guidelines - they immediately began developing phased plans to restore services, starting with contactless pickup last month.

"You should've seen us when we got our first patron the first day," Craig said. "We all did a little dance."

The next step is finalizing protocols to welcome community members into the rental space within Haines, 305 S. Ninth St. The library will likely open by appointment only this month to maintain capacity limits in the public area, which is about one-third the size of its regular headquarters, Craig said.

"This community has been very supportive of the steps we've taken with understanding that we're trying to keep everyone safe," she said. "We're finally coming back to some level of normalcy."

The library expects to operate in the Haines building until next spring, when it will close for three to four weeks to move back into the remodeled Sixth Avenue facility.

Crews are currently working on exterior infrastructure improvements, reconfiguring the parking lot and digging a sunken terraced garden to be used for outdoor programming, Craig said. Other upgrades include creating a new entrance, a drive-up window, a makerspace, a teen room, and additional meeting and study rooms, among other interior improvements.

Information on the project and the library's reopening is available at www.scpld.org.