Allen County Public Library is Closed

The second largest genealogy library in the world is closed. However, in a few weeks, the library will re-open in a $64 million building in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The downtown library's genealogy department closed Saturday, and about 100 employees began moving the genealogy department's 750,000-piece collection to the new library on Tuesday. The microfilm machines and microfiche cabinets had already been moved. The remainder of the library's departments will close on January 8 so that workers can begin moving the rest of the materials to the new location.

Employees took books, newsletters, and other materials off the shelves and placed them on a wheeled cart, which was then taken to a truck waiting at the dock. The carts were loaded into the trucks, which were then driven to the new location and unloaded, said Cheryl Ferverda, Community Relations and Development Manager. "It is as close to taking them off the shelf in order and putting them on the new shelves in order as you can get," Ferverda said.

The $64 million new main library will open on Webster Street on January 27.

The Allen County Public Library's genealogy collection is second in size only to the one at the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City.

Comments

[Loretta Barlow]

I'm trying to get a press pass for the Grand Opening (and ask Cheryl if there will be a press pre-view)so I can make a video of the opening and the new Genealogy Department. I work for The News-Sentinel, but I'm not a reporter. I'll go to the opening regardless, and make a video, but I figure my positions will be better if I can do it as an employee of the newspaper. I will post it at http://krumbar.neptune.com. Pray for good weather!

[Jay Stein]

I knew the genealogy collection in the library at Fort Wayne was very large, but a collection larger than that at the Library of Congress? Just asking...

Jay