Work on the new library, located at 8000 Dallas Parkway next to the Frisco Discovery Center, is estimated to wrap up in early January, Frisco Library Director Shelley Holley said during the meeting. It was originally planned to finish in fall 2022, but “unusual circumstances” such as shipping shortages pushed the completion date back, Holley said. The $62 million project is projected to stay on budget, she said.
Once construction is complete, library staff will take five to six weeks to transition to the new building, Holley said. The transition will involve transferring 250,000 items to the new building, training staff and integrating new books.
“The bulk of that time—we’ll be moving the library in this building to that building,” she said. “That’s actually a pretty detailed process.”
The library department will not hire any additional staff once it has moved into the building, Holley said. The building was designed with “lean thinking” in mind while considering how the library offers its services, she said. That could change if the library sees a large increase in traffic, she said.
Frisco broke ground on the new library in April 2021, according to the city website. The new building is measured at 157,000 square feet of space, triple that of the library’s current home in the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center.
“We feel well prepared to handle three times the size [of the current library] with the staff we have today,” Holley said. “I can’t promise we can handle three times the traffic [and] business with the staff we have today.”
Council members toured the library during a work session Aug. 16, catching a glimpse of the construction progress in person. Holley led the council members from room to room, pointing out features that would be included in the new building.
The new library will include a community event room, a quiet reading room, a kids reading space and a full-size female T-Rex skeleton, named Rexy by the Frisco community.
