The Fort St. John Library will be closed for a few weeks to freshen up its image. It will close its doors Sept. 4 and re-open, tentatively, Sept. 28.

“We are closing to get a floor lift. The carpet is coming up and we are getting all new flooring,” said director Kimberly Partanen.

The library moved from its previous location, where Shoppers Drug Mart is next to PriceSmart, in 1992. About eight years ago it got a fresh coat of paint, but that has been it for the past 18 years.

The existing carpet is the original floor covering from when the doors opened way back then.

A new colour scheme will be anchored by a rich brown flooring rather than carpet.

“While we are closed, we are also getting a new paint job and we are re-arranging the floor layout as well,” Partanen explained.

She said a new section for youth and teens will bring together materials that are currently in three different locations.

“This will bring all of the juvenile paperbacks, fiction and non-fiction together in one space rather spread out over the library.”

Four new seven-foot shelves for adult non-fiction will also be added.

It was a staff member and her husband that meticulously measured the space and put it to scale, to allow for the new layout, Partanen said.

“It was like a puzzle. It is trying to fit everything that we have into the existing space but in a different configuration.”

To make the move a little easier, by reducing what has to be moved, the library is hoping everyone will max out their cards.

“We are encouraging people between now and Sept. 4 to come in and take their maximum amount of books out, which is 25. The less we have in the library, the less we have to pack. If you sign 25 books out you will get an entry form for a giveaway when we reopen,” she said.

Readers are asked not to return books during the renovation.

A Ducks Ahoy fundraiser will be held at the North Peace Leisure Pool on Sept. 25, just before the planned re-opening.

“We are just changing things up a little bit. Trying to make better use of our space,” Partanen concluded.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the library in Fort St. John.

For more information on the floor lift and other events, visit http://fortstjohn.bclibrary.ca/.