How can locals help Summit County librarians move their Kimball Junction branch this summer? Library Director Dan Compton has an idea: check out 50 books at once.
The “Check Out the Move” initiative is scheduled to run Aug. 1-15.
“So there's two weeks there that we're going to encourage as many people as possible to come in and check out their max books that they can,” Compton said at the July 16 library board meeting. “It's 50 per card.”
Participants may get a free book bag and sticker for their trouble.
It’s a way to lighten the load on the librarians and other volunteers, including Rotarians, who will start moving out of the Sheldon Richins Building Aug. 17. Eventually, the building will be demolished.
Kimball Junction librarians estimate they have 42,000 items. The due date for readers who oblige during “Check Out the Move” is early October.
They’ll be returning books to the library’s new location in the former Skullcandy headquarters, now Summit County’s PEAK Center, across Landmark Drive.
Libraries sometimes field “book brigades,” enlisting a line of volunteers to pass books individually from one location to the next.
Summit County is planning on a ceremonial brigade with its 24 “One Book, One Community” titles. The countywide book club has run every year since 2003.
“We'll move all 24 of them in order,” Compton said. “The goal is to have one book have a GoPro attached to it, so it'll record people as it goes by, and then have a drone filming, from above, the whole thing.”
That will be around the time of the PEAK Center’s September grand opening. A date hasn’t been set, but Compton tentatively plans to open library doors by Sept. 11.
If all goes according to schedule, the last day the library will be open in the Sheldon Richins Building will be Aug. 15.
In the meantime, books on hold will be available outside the Richins Building in Summit County’s bookmobile. Hours will be limited, but the Kamas and Coalville branches will still be open.
“If you've never been, that's a great opportunity to go see the rest of the Summit County library system,” the library director said.
It’s not clear when the Richins Building will be demolished. Summit County is partnering with a developer to replace it with a plaza surrounded by housing, businesses and other services, with a pedestrian bridge across state Route 224.
The nearby transit center will expand and move south, connected to a parking garage underneath the plaza.
In addition to the library, other Richins Building services will move to the PEAK Center, including the Department of Motor Vehicles office.
The DMV is also targeting early- to mid-August for its move, Summit County Treasurer Corrie Forsling said. That date is less certain since it requires coordinating with state officials.
Summit County is a financial supporter of KPCW.
