You won't be able to browse the Portage Regional Library's Adult Fiction, Young Adults paperbacks, and Junior books next week.  As a result, they're recommending you take the time this week.

Director Jen Kendall says it's due to some good news.

"We were fortunate enough to get a grant to add some new shelving. We're going to be moving the Junior books closer to the new primary area," explains Kendall. "And then because of that, we had to move the Adult stuff back. It will take us a while. There's been a lot of planning that went into this to make sure we do it as efficiently as possible, but unfortunately, we will have to close the stacks in the centre of the library next week."

She explains there are too many moving parts to be able to allow access to these books during the changeover.

"So, we do request that people either come in this week or that they place holds for their items, and we'll be able to pull them for them," notes Kendall. "We just ask that everyone has a little bit of patience while we finish this last big piece of the puzzle." 

Kendall adds the effort may be done earlier than they expect, and the latter part of next week may have them available again. However, they want to have some buffer time.

"If something goes wrong, it's going to go really wrong because we're moving 30,000 books around."

She says the grant amounted to about $37,000. 

"Our shelves are made to last, so they're not cheap," says Kendall. "It'll make everything a lot more accessible, and we're really happy that we were finally able to get the funding for the shelves. There are eight new bays of shelves."

Kendall also reminds everyone that  their big summer book sale is starting on the 20th, the week after they've completed the new arrangements. 

"We can't wait to see everybody."