The Jasper Municipal Library will close on Tuesday and begin moving to its temporary location at the Jasper Activity Centre, where it will re-open on Oct. 24.

The relocation of books and services to an area under the bleachers at the activity centre’s arena will allow for a $7.5-million expansion and renovation of the current library building, which is expected to begin before the end of October.

The project was approved by the municipal council in May and a bid from Edmonton-based Delnor Construction was recently accepted. Municipal manager George Krefting said a letter of intent to proceed with the project has been sent to Delnor and he expects the final construction contracts to be signed by Oct. 6.

“Also at that time we do plan to be able to determine the actual construction start date for the project,” Krefting said. “We expect it will be prior to the end of October.”

The project is expected to take between 14 and 16 months to complete, he added, with an estimated end date late in 2012 or early in 2013.

In the short term, library services will only be suspended while the move to the activity centre takes place from Oct. 11 to Oct. 24. After that, librarian Angie Thom said “people will still have access to pretty much all the same stuff they had access to before,” albeit in a smaller area.

“The space that we’re going into is a lot smaller,” Thom said. “We’ll definitely be downsizing a bit.”

Books and a small reading area will be available at the new arena location, she added, while some of the library’s other services will end up in other, temporary locations around town.

Many books will be kept in storage but patrons will still have access to the same amount of texts, Thom noted, either immediately through the library’s local collection or through the existing TRAC system which shares books and other materials between libraries throughout the region.

“That gives our patrons access to millions of items, all in this district,” Thom said, adding that there will continue to be weekly deliveries to Jasper from other regional libraries.

There is some work already underway near the library, which has resulted in the closures of sections of Elm Avenue and Robson Street. Krefting said that work involves the re-routing of some utility service lines in advance of the major construction to come.

The main project will see the existing library building renovated and a major addition at the south end of the property, which will be used for a variety of arts, cultural and community purposes.

The plans call for approximately 3,400 square feet of arts and culture spaces to be occupied by the Habitat for the Arts and the Jasper Artists Guild as well as 2,400 square feet of multi-use space including an area to be made available as new council chambers. There is also an allocation of dedicated spaces for L’Association canadienne-française de l’Alberta and for mayor and council office spaces.

Money for the $7.5-million project comes from the Canada Building Fund, fundraising efforts by Friends of the Library, and from MSI Capital Grant funding.