Cedar Rapids Main Library May Be Closed For Three Years, Not One
Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 8/8/2008
- Flood damage in June leads to three-year recovery
- Store in mall eyed as "bridge" facility
- Worst PL disaster in nation?
The Main Library of the Cedar Rapids Public Library, IA, devastated by floods in June, likely will 
be closed not for one year, as previously estimated, but for three years. The initial estimate is "just not realistic," library board member Doug Elliott, who chairs the building committee, told the board, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette.
"This is really the largest public library facility disaster in this nation," board president Susan Corrigan said, acknowledging more extensive damage to the buildings of the New Orleans Public Library after Hurricane Katrina but noting that New Orleans' main facility was mostly spared.
The delay, Elliott said, "also affects the kind of space we look at" while the Main Library is under repairs. Elliott told the board that a former Big Lots store, once considered a candidate, would be too costly and require too much work. The library is considering another space in the same mall.
Rather than call the expected interim space a "temporary" facility, board members now call it a "bridge" facility," a testament, the newspaper said, to the extended time period.
The library is still not accepting donations of books but is welcoming financial contributions.
