fl· c-
North Carolina State .libr_
R.I.iq"
This is a port ion of the State Libra ry'. t cmporory home on Welt Harge" Street.
In Temporary Quarters
")'1+0 ,, - 'J. '1- ''1: :1::2
State Library Completes Move
By GE.,'E MARLOWE
The $tate Library staff bas
completed a live-week trek
from Capitol Square to West
Hargett Street - about a
block.
"Work?" said Slate Li­brarian
Phillip Ogilvie in­credulously.
"It nearly
worked us to death."
His stafr took along 160,000
books, 200,000 documents and
8,000 bound newspapers in the
moving job completed last
Friday,
For the first time in half
a century, the old State Li­brary
building-borne of the
State's boo:{ collection since
1913-hasn't got a library
book in it. The books are in
shelves and boxes at tempor­ary
headquarters in the
Grcen Building, 118 W, Har­gett
5t.
The Hargett Street location
is being rented for 10 months
while the old Library Build­ing
is renovated to accom­mOdate
the Utilities Commis­sion
and the new Interme­diate
Court of Appeals and
new quarters {or the library,
archives and history depart­ments
are constructed near
the Stale House,
Ogilvie considers it "some­thing
of a miracle" that it
look only five weeks to move
the books, papers and maga­zines
to West Hargett Street.
All 160,000 books are already
hack in order on the shelves,
Several hundred boxes of
newspapers and magazines
remain stacked up In the
aisles, waiting to be un­packed,
"Give us a few more weeks
and we'll have everything
right where we can put our
hands on it," said Ogilvie,
The State Library serves I S
a clearing house for informa­tion,
reference material and
books for e\'cry school and
public library in North Caro­lina,
Prior to the big move, the
State I.ibrary warned its cus­tomers
to eXpe<!t a delay in
service in the anticipated oon­lUSJOn.
"lIo .... e\'er. the libraries at
the University of North Car-olina
and N. C. State. and in
other metropolitan centers­such
as Mecklenburg-were
generous enough to readily
give what help we might
need so thal service was al·
most e<mtinoous," said Ogil.
vie.
P risoners Helped
While it was up to the Ii·
brary staff to keep lrack of
the books and make sure they
wcnt into the right boxes and
b, ck up on the right shelves
during the moving interim,
the actual physical labor of
moving was done by 17 honor
grade inmates from Central
Prison,
" It was a chore," said Ogil­vie.
"There were s,\)elves that
had to be taken down and
moved from that old building
that had been standing 50
years. Some {If the screws
holding them up were nol
only rusty but put there 10
slay."