Katrina Anderson, library executive director, helps direct a cart full of books to the proper location inside the new Manheim Township library on Wednesday.
John Ditmore, left, and Mark Sandblade unpack computers and components at the new Manheim Township library on Wednesday. Both men work for the IT department of the Library System of Lancaster County.
This is the entrance to the new Manheim Township Public Library.
Professional movers wheel racks of books inside the new Manheim Township library on Wednesday.
Jeannette Hower was so excited by all the space inside Manheim Township's new library Wednesday that she felt like flying.
"I get giddy, there's so much room in here!" the township parks department employee said, spreading both arms out like she was a plane, and flying through the mostly empty Overlook Community Campus library.
"It brings the kid out in me."
It was a rare break in the action for Hower and other township employees, library officials, volunteers and professional movers who had a hand in helping the township library move to a new home.
After years of planning and fundraising, moving day finally had arrived.
The library is moving out of its cramped facility on Oregon Pike and into its new $7.7 million home in Overlook, two miles away.
Activity peaked Wednesday, with movers packing up and moving the 17,000 or so books and other items. They finished the move Thursday.
"It's lots of excitement, but it's also a little nerve-wracking, because the whole idea is to maintain order in the midst of the chaos that everybody always has when they move," said Mary Anne Stanley, library youth services manager.
Wednesday morning, she stood inside the old library.
Nearby, workers from Jack Treier Inc. Moving & Storage deftly threw what looked like Saran wrap around bookshelves and loaded them onto the two large and one midsize moving trucks in the parking lot.
Stanley said the moving process is "kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, still in the box."
"We're shaking the box, and then we're going to have to put the puzzle pieces back together to make the new picture" at the library's new home.
Wednesday was a day that officials and residents of Lancaster's largest suburb have been anticipating for months, even years — the opening of the state-of-the-art, 20,000-square-foot library in Overlook, just off Fruitville Pike.
But as anyone who has moved from a cramped apartment to a new home knows, the excitement of moving goes hand in hand with the back-breaking work of boxing and carrying out the household.
Or, in this case, the entire library, which has been at the old location, 2121 Oregon Pike, since April 2007.
With all the work to be done, Manheim Township officials hired Treier, which is being paid for its services but agreed to donate the use of its trucks and equipment to the cause.
To make it all go smoothly and quickly, you "have to have the right people, the right equipment, and a system," company president Steve Treier said, watching some of his eight crew members quickly and safely move things out of the old library.
Library staff members and volunteers will organize everything inside the new library at 595 Granite Run Drive.
Said Treier, smiling, "Hey, we're good at supplying the brawn, but they (library officials) have to supply the brains," at least when it comes to organizing the library, "since they know the Dewey decimal system … we don't."
Inside what will be her new home, library executive director Katrina Anderson, a large paper mug of coffee in hand, patiently directed her staff and movers.
Despite the thousands of items to be moved, "it all should run pretty smoothly," Anderson said, showing off a color-coded list detailing where everything should go.
Along with everything being moved Wednesday, another 20 percent of the library's collection has been in storage and is being delivered by a dozen or so volunteers this weekend, she said.
"I can't say 'books' any more, because we're so much more than books," she said, reading from the insignia on her township library polo shirt.
The library will hold a 'soft opening' to the public on Sept. 13, but its real grand opening will be Oct. 16, with a ribbon-cutting and a series of events, including a gala fundraiser in the new facility.
Having a new home "allows us to have everything under one roof," said Lori Dietrich, the library's community relations and development manager.
She said the new library will be a nice addition to Overlook, "just a really cool gathering place" for what is becoming sort of a town square for the community, she said.
