Frequently Asked Questions
What’s new: The Vancouver Mall Community Library has stopped some pick-up services.
What’s next: Sunday will be the library’s final day at its current facility; starting Monday, it will be closed for a remodeling project.
Some book pickup services at the Vancouver Mall Community Library have already stopped as the branch prepares to close Monday for remodeling.
The current site will be open through 6 p.m. Sunday. A smaller version will reopen in late March or early April as The Mall Library Connection. It will be in about the same location, adjacent to J.C. Penney on the upper level of Westfield Vancouver mall, 8700 N.E. Vancouver Mall Drive.
All Fort Vancouver libraries will be closed on Monday and Tuesday for Christmas. Demolition work at the mall facility is scheduled to begin on Wednesday.
The current lease expires on Dec. 31. The 2013 lease costs about the same as the current one — $72,000, with an automatic 4 percent annual increase — but it only pays for about half the space. So, the present 7,215-square-foot space will be condensed into a 3,575-square foot library facility.
With an innovative layout, “It won’t feel like a loss,” Patty Reyes, operations director, said at a recent meeting of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library District board of trustees.
Executive Director Nancy Tessman told the board that the district will be able to experiment with
technology at The Mall Library Connection. The district will purchase iPads and laptops that visitors will be able to use at the Mall Library Connection through its Wi-Fi link.
The mall library is no longer available as a “holds” pickup location option. Borrowers will need to select alternate locations in the Fort Vancouver system to pick up holds through the closure.
All items previously placed on hold for delivery to the mall library were automatically switched to the Cascade Park Community Library, 600 N.E. 136th Ave.
Patrons who prefer to change their existing holds to pickup locations other than Cascade Park can ask staff members to make the change.
Holds that were delivered to the mall library before Dec. 11 will be available for pickup there only through today.
Exterior book return bins on the north side of the mall will be removed after the library closes at 9 p.m. today.
Patrons can return books inside the mall while the library is still open, through 6 p.m. Sunday.
The mall location was the fifth-busiest of the system’s 16 locations in November, with a circulation of 22,254 items. In 2011, the mall library had 328,940 visitors.
The project will cost about $750,000; that includes $150,000 from Westfield and money from the 2006 Vancouver Library Capital Facility Area bond measure.
