The closure, announced in an April 4 email from library officials to community members, is expected to last one year, the city’s website states.
The gist
The library will remain open until the last day of public access on June 13, but some services will end prior to that date. The last day to use meeting and study rooms will be April 30, and programs will end at the library after May 4, the city’s website states.
Most materials from Hall Memorial Library will be relocated to John and Judy Gay Library during the renovation period and will remain available to patrons, but some materials that are older, damaged or outdated will be removed from the library’s collection. Library officials are also working to offer select library programs at alternate locations in East McKinney, according to the city’s website.
Following the June 13 closure, pickup of library materials on hold will be available at both the Gay Library as well as at McKinney City Hall, located at 401 E. Virginia St., McKinney. Borrowed materials will be returned to the Gay Library.
The context
The roughly $20 million renovation project will primarily take place within the walls of the existing library and includes changes to the library’s layout.
The new layout will improve access to materials at the library, and create youth-and-teen-specific spaces, the city’s website states, as well as adding updated technology and increased public meeting space.
The project will also include the addition of a 26-foot, 55-person, full-dome planetarium paired with an adjacent 2,500-square-foot exhibit space that can host rotating and interactive exhibits. A dedicated space will be added for the library’s local history collection, as well as additional restrooms, two elevators and nine reservable study rooms.
“We're not getting rid of Hall [Library]; we're not getting rid of the Roy and Helen Hall legacy. We're really just [considering] how we can use the footprint we have and the space we have to reimagine what a library downtown could be,” Spencer Smith, director of the McKinney Public Libraries, told Community Impact.
For more information, visit www.mckinneytexas.org/818/roy-helen-hall-library-reimagining.
