The aroma of wood is one of the first things people -- especially former students -- remember when they return to Stratton Library. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

The aroma of wood is one of the first things people — especially former students — remember when they return to Stratton Library. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Without much fanfare, Sitka’s entire public library was relocated to temporary quarters last month. Thousands of books, the shelving to hold them, computers, and furniture were packed across Crescent Harbor to the Stratton Library on the Sheldon Jackson Campus, to make way for contractors preparing to enlarge Kettleson Memorial Library.

KCAW’s Robert Woolsey took a look around the new place, and even attempted to speak to the librarians.

Downloadable audio.

Kettleson Library has a new director. City administrator Mark Gorman announced last week that Robb Farmer will take over the reins at Sitka’s public library. Farmer is currently the director of the Faulkner Law Library in Montgomery, Alabama. Farmer and his wife, Kathy, plan to relocate to Sitka later this month. Former Kettleson director Sarah Bell retired in August.

Kettleson's collection of Alaskana, and the C.L. Andrews collection, are right at home in Stratton. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Kettleson’s collection of Alaskana, and the C.L. Andrews collection, are right at home in Stratton. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

I suppose you have to be quiet by discipline to be a librarian. And being shy by nature probably doesn’t hurt your chances working in this field. I arrive at Stratton for my tour, and I’m met by three librarians — all of whom would rather someone else did the talking.

Brooke — I think it would be good to have people who…
Joanna — It would be good to have more than one voice, right? Basically we’re all microphone-shy here.
Brooke — But we’re here to do it. We’re gonna rally…
Joanna — We very much want to promote the library. Are you recording us right now?

Yes. The microphone in my hand and the tape recorder around my neck mean that I am recording. Faced with the inevitable, one of the librarians steps to the plate.

Joanna Perensovich is the information services librarian. She catalogs new materials, keeps the database up-to-date, and keeps Kettleson connected with the school libraries through the Sitka Library Network.

“I started working in the library in 1999 as a part-time on-call sub. and gradually worked my way into a full-time position. I’ve worn almost every hat in this building, at one point or another.”

Stratton Library closed along with the rest of Sheldon Jackson College in 2007. The trustees triaged the space: they kept just enough heat in the building to preserve the collection until it could be sold, handed off, or disposed of a few years later. Now Stratton is owned by the state Division of Libraries, and it will be run by the state-owned Sheldon Jackson Museum next door.

Until those plans reach fruition, though, Stratton was the perfect setting to temporarily house Kettleson Library during the expansion and remodel of that facility.

Librarian Brooke Schafer (rear) and volunteer Don Muller agree that the soul of a library is not contained in the books, but in the people who visit. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Librarian Brooke Schafer (rear) and volunteer Don Muller agree that the soul of a library is not contained in the books, but in the people who visit. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Returning to Stratton — especially for Sheldon Jackson alums — Perensovich says is like a homecoming.

“That’s the one thing they recognize first, is the smell.”

It’s partly the musty smell of a building that hasn’t been used for a long time, and partly the smell of fir. Stratton is filled with wood. The light fixtures are wild — like Charles Mackintosh and Frank Lloyd Wright got into an argument and settled it with table saws instead of fisticuffs.

But patrons may never notice the beautiful lights. They’ll probably be staring out the window. This library looks out on a volcano.

KCAW – Can we go upstairs? I want to check out the view.
Perensovich – That’s one of the most amazing things about Sitka: We have two library buildings in this town that have the most awesome views — probably in the whole wide world.

Not bad for temporary housing. The other possibility for Kettleson was to move into the Hames Center on campus, on a platform built over the old swimming pool.

Possibly the coolest book return ever, this piece of art was created by volunteer Mat Turner. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Possibly the coolest book return ever, this piece of art was created by volunteer Mat Turner. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

But still, moving is moving, regardless if you’re headed to a great spot. Perensovich says packing up Kettleson took about a month, and felt much longer.

“Well it’s like any house you move out of. The longer you’ve lived there the more stuff you have stuffed in the corners. We’d occupied that building for over thirty years. We started a long time ago just trying to go through closets and rooms and storage spaces, getting rid of a lot of stuff. I think we had a couple of garage sales, and a lot of stuff went to the White E, the dump, or was recycled. It was a huge project. The actual 4 weeks we were closed for the actual move of the collection, furniture, and staff space — it feels like we’ve been moving for a year-and-a-half, but most of that is just preparation.”

Stratton is a little smaller than Kettleson, and engineers were concerned about overloading its upper floors. So the stacks upstairs at Stratton house the children and teen collections.

A lot of stuff just had to go. But it was going to go anyway.

“It’s never an easy thing for a librarian and a book lover to do — to get rid of books. But some of it was just outdated and misinformation. You know if it’s old enough in the nonfiction collection. And some of it is things that don’t circulate as much anymore. So we did weed fairly heavily, because we knew we wouldn’t have enough room here for everything that we had at Kettleson. And we’ve also known for quite a while that even though the library’s going to be expanded, the total amount of shelf space might be a little bit reduced.”

Dennis Gable says the space is nice, but patrons haven't quite caught on to the new location. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Dennis Gable says the space is nice, but patrons haven’t quite caught on to the new location. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

The only patrons in the library this weekday morning are gathered at the public use computers. Dennis Gable says he’s a regular library user. Ironically, he’s at a workstation, shopping for a computer of his own.

“I like the wide open atmosphere. It doesn’t seem to have caught on with the locals. It’s far emptier than the other one was on a daily basis. It looks like they’ve made the most of the space they have.”

There’s someone else here playing solitaire, and three or four people browsing periodicals. The last time I did a story in this building, librarians were disposing of the Stratton collection. Sitkans were carrying out grocery bags full of books for a few dollars a bag. Someone told me it felt like destroying the soul of a library.

I asked librarian Brooke Shafer if that were true: that libraries have souls.

“This place feels like a library to me. Like you want to come in and look out the window, and get your space set up and be here for a while. And that’s kinda the soul of the library, of this place. It’s not that there are books here. There are people who have come here to spend time thinking and reading and being together quietly in this space.”

As beautiful as this place is, Joanna Perensovich knows it’s not permanent. At the other end is another move — sometime over a year from now — when they’ll pack up this library again, and return to an all-new space in Kettleson’s orignal home.

The new Kettleson will have fewer actual books, but more connections. It will have community meeting space, teleconferencing, and a teen lab where kids can experiment with music and video.

“We have to keep moving forward. That’s the biggest challenge of libraries is keeping up with the times. We’re not just dusty book repositories anymore. So, unless technology decides to take a break, we’re always in there trying to figure out what the next thing is, and what patrons are looking for, what they need, and how we can fill that need.”

Especially if that need is to have a library with soul.