by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
The doors of the Haydon Burns Library closed for the last time this week. Now comes the hard part, library director Barbara Gubbin says.
“Just because (Haydon Burns) is closed doesn’t mean anyone’s getting a vacation,” Gubbin said following a ceremonial closing of the building Tuesday morning. “We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us and the staff at the main branch is playing a large part in that.”
Library spokesperson Stacie Bucher said about 20 Haydon Burns employees would be temporarily transferred to regional branches across the city. The more than 50 staffers left, she said, would assist in moving old materials out of the now-closed building and help in assimilating them with the new books, DVDs and CDs waiting in the New Main Library that were purchased as part of the Better Jacksonville Plan.
“It’s easier if you look at it in two phases,” Bucher said. “It will take us about three weeks to cover the move itself. After that we’re looking at about seven weeks of setting everything up.”
Looking ahead to the Main Library’s Nov. 12 grand opening, Gubbin said the next two months would be a “very significant undertaking.”
“And I don’t think the majority of people really understand that,” she said. “We’re not moving books from shelf A at the old library to shelf A in the new library. We’re having to combine the current collection with the $5 million worth of new materials that have been purchased.
“It’s a very mathematical, highly detailed process.”
Bucher said the older materials would be cataloged and internally filed by using the Dewey Decimal System.
“This is a very exciting time for all of us,” she said. “But we haven’t forgotten that we have a lot of work ahead of us. The library may be closed, but everyone here is going to be staying pretty busy.”