July 07, 2008

Nearly three years after they were removed from California State University, Fresno’s Henry Madden Library to make way for expansion, the books are back.

“The soul of the library has returned,” said David Tyckoson, the library’s associate dean. “Until the books are in, it’s just sort of a nice building. For those of us at the library, this is very symbolic.”

Crews took just 19½ days to transport 1 million volumes – 900,000 of which are books. The effort took at least 120 semi-truck trips from a warehouse in southeastern Fresno.

“It was an incredibly fast time to move that many items and keep them in order,” Tyckoson said. “Everything went pretty much as planned.”

The Madden Library is still six months from reopening, but the return of its holdings from the warehouse means the hardest work is done, Tyckoson added. Currently, the bulk of the library holdings are on a 90,000 square-foot “collection level” in the basement. Materials will be distributed to their final locations as construction finishes.

The new library is scheduled to open in January, with staff expected to relocate from temporary office space in November or December, Tyckoson said.

The Madden Library expansion is a $105 million project that included razing the oldest part of the library (built in 1956), erecting a more-spacious four-floor building in its footprint and refurbishing the south wing that was built in 1980.