Library CEO says Central Branch Move will be Quite the Feat

After 47 years of education and public service the Central Branch of the Windsor Public Library will turn a new page.

Library CEO Kitty Pope took a moment to reflect on what's to come at the launch of the Downtown Mission's Building Hope fundraising campaign over the weekend. The Mission will be taking over the 101,000-sq.ft. building on June 28 after purchasing it from the city for $3.6-million.

Pope's says moving thousands of items is going to be quite the feat — but knowing what's next for the building makes it worthwhile.

"This isn't going to some unknown purpose; they are using every single square foot. As much as they're very humble about making a difference with the homeless and the opioid crisis that we're dealing with, they are going to make a difference with this building," she says. "That's what I think sustains as we go through this moving process."

The primary reason for the move is the massive building is underutilized, so everything won't fit in the library's next home.

Pope is excited to see where they can spread the wealth of knowledge and services the library supplies to other branches.

"Push our collections out to areas that have been wanting some collections, and then re-evaluating exactly how we provide our service," says Pope. "It's not about the physicality, it's about the service and the access to that service; it's a good exercise for us."

She says the library will close to the public about a month before the move; then it's all hands on deck for the move.

"We'll likely be mopping up until the 28th," joked Pope. "The public will be out about a month earlier but we'll be cleaning up because we promised the mission we would leave them a clean building."

Pope says she's excited the library's moving into its next chapter, but only smirked when asked where the library would wind-up.

The library board is set to meet at 4pm Tuesday and an announcement is expected on the new location sometime Wednesday.