State Must Find Library Quarters

У) .г _ /)/<Л icl-uox^ ЛМУ i 9 ш State Must Find NORTH CAROLINA STATE LIBRAF ‘.RY rters yj t & ц c ■ & The State Library and the Utilities Commission will have to start packing soon so that the State Library Building can be renovated as the home of the newly-created Court )f Appeals. The Utilities Commission, which will return to the Library Building after the renovation is completed, will be housed in the meantime in the old YMCA at Edenton and Wilmington streets, according to Frank B. Turner, director of the proper¬ ty control division of the De¬ partment of Administration. Library Won’t Return The State Library will not be returning to the old Library Building, bm will go into the new State Archives Li brary Building when it is com pleted on Heritage Square a year from now, Turner said. Where the library will estab¬ lish quarters while waiting for its permanent home has not been determined, Turner said. With its more than 150,000 volumes of books and tons of records, the Library is present¬ ing a problem as far as tem¬ porary housing goes. The move has also come as a shock to the State Library staff who thought they would occupy their present quarters until the new State Archives- Library Building is completed in the spring of 1968. “I am very concerned about 'his move,” said Philip Ogilvie, State librarian. “Our big con¬ cern is to remain in operation for the supplemental services for which every county library depends on us.” Turner said the State Library and Utilities Commission were not notified earlier about the move because “we couldn’t as¬ sume the authority to say what would take place until the General Assembly approved the new court.” The property control division has nearly completed plans for renovating the old library building for the new Court of Appeals. Renovation will take from nine months to a year, Turner said. Bids will be let for the reno¬ vation work about May 15 and contracts awarded immediate¬ ly after, he said. The Utilities Commission, which has its courtroom and offices on the third or top floor of the Library Building, will move down to the second and first floors, displacing the State Library operations. This will leave the top floor open for the new appeals court. The Utilities Commission’s courtroom will be on the sec¬ ond floor. The new Archives-Library Building was scheduled to be ready by this time but a two- year delay in selecting the site for the building is forcing the State Librarian to move out into temporary quarters.