If you’re strolling through downtown Wellman and find that what was once Driscoll Studio is now the Wellman-Scofield Public Library, don’t be shocked.  It’s temporary.

Renovation and expansion work will soon begin on the library’s permanent home at 711 4th Street, and while select interior and exterior demolition takes place, the library’s staff and collection will be housed well out of the way.  Starting Tuesday, May 9, the library will operate out of the former Driscoll building at 257 8th Avenue.

Staff and volunteers began moving shelves and books around the corner and down the street on May 1.  

“It’s going really well.  I had no idea what to expect,” Library Director Carrie Geno said on the second day of the move.  “I’m so thrilled with all the help we’ve gotten, all these community members coming out and joining us, and our staff is phenomenal.”

In addition to patrons volunteering and students earning silver cord hours, the library received help from the Washington Hy-Vee store, which set aside cardboard egg-shipping boxes for them to pack and transport books.

“We found out that those are the dimensions that are recommended for packing boxes.  If you get much bigger than that, you can’t move them.  They’re sturdy, have handles, and have just been amazing.  They were kind enough to save them for us,” Geno said.

Volunteers and staff loaded the boxes with books, loaded a pickup truck with the boxes, and then unloaded them down the block.  Then they disassembled shelves and did the same.  Another crew helped reassemble the shelving units and reshelve the books at the new location.

The new space downtown has recently been refinished, just in time for the library’s occupancy.

“It doesn’t smell like fresh paint so much anymore, but it does smell like books, so even better,” Geno chuckles. 

The temporary location is a smaller space, so less popular portions of the collection, such as adult books on CD, reference titles, some biographies, and possibly westerns will be put into storage.  “But we’re trying to keep as much of the sections that get regularly used available, like our junior fiction, children’s books, adult fiction, and nonfiction available for people so that we can be up and running and still serving our community,” Geno said.

Summer programs and activities will continue as usual, although they will take place at Parkside Activities Center or North Park this year.

Many patrons helped the library out before the move by checking out 20 books, which Geno said was “a huge help.”  When it comes to returning those books after hours, the dropbox at the permanent library will still be open until construction begins.  JFH Metal Signs & Fabrication in Wellman will be fabricating a new freestanding dropbox “that will replace our in-wall dropbox permanently,” Geno noted.

“It’s great to have someone local and support local businesses,” she added.

The library’s temporary location will be open normal hours, Monday – Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Geno expects to operate out of this space for four to eight months while construction is underway.