PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Another Multnomah County library closed its doors Saturday in preparation for construction.
The Albina Library on Northeast Knott Street will be renovated and greatly expanded.
According to Multnomah County Library, the renovations will result in a 30,000-square-foot library for the community – four times the space of the current library.
The design will preserve the historic Carnegie structure on Knott Street and will make it one of the largest libraries in the county.
Some of the library’s new features will include an outdoor courtyard; large community and meeting rooms; a larger, more diverse collection, including a Spanish language collection; four new study rooms; a dedicated teen room with space for technology, homework and creative work; updated technology and internet and new art that represents the community.
The Isom Operations Center, which is connected to the Albina Library, also closed on Saturday due to the construction.
The Isom Operations Center provides services that support library operations. Those services will be briefly paused as they relocate to other facilities, Multnomah County Library said.
Some of the services that will be paused include materials receiving, sorting and handling; interlibrary loan; brochures and other printing; and other support services. The library will notify patrons about their specific hold status based on their pick-up location.
The Albina Library is scheduled to reopen in fall 2024. When the library reopens, administrative offices will return to the Isom Operations Center space. Other operational workgroups will eventually be housed in the new Operations Center which is scheduled to be completed in November 2023.
The Albina Library closure comes after the county closed the Holgate Library on Dec. 5, the Midland Library on Dec. 23, and the Central Library in downtown Portland on March 11 for major improvements.
The next library to close for construction will be the North Portland Library on April 5.
Nearly half of the libraries in Multnomah County will be closed at times throughout 2023 as the buildings undergo major construction, Director of Libraries Vailey Oehlke said.
Katie O’Dell, the capital bond deputy director for Multnomah County Library, told KOIN 6 News that the terms of the library’s bond sale dictate how long it has to spend bond funds, which led to them deciding to do the majority of construction sooner rather than later.
While the libraries are closed, the county is working to continue to provide as many resources as they can to people impacted by the closures.
Staff members are currently designing pop-up and outreach programs to offer during the closures. There will also be a new Mobile Library for the community to enjoy. It’s a customized RV that will bring library services across the county.
Multnomah County Library has been experimenting with ways to offer the public wifi during the closure. It’s brought hotspots to parks with its outreach programs and has tested offering wifi outside its buildings, so that even if a building isn’t open, it could still be a source for internet connection.
Throughout the construction, Multnomah County Library will maintain all of its staff. No one will be laid off. Instead, they’ll join staff at spillover libraries – ones that receive more patronage while others are closed – and will work in outreach programs across the community.