A burst of steamy August weather plus an ongoing major renovation project has closed Buffalo's Crane Branch public library until Saturday. The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library bookmobile is helping out by stationing itself at the corner of Bidwell Parkway and Elmwood Avenue for the duration.
A key item of the Crane Branch's renovation is a new elevator to add access to the second floor. It's also getting a new heating and ventilation system.
To replace the old system, it had to be shut down and the fans being used to make the facility usable just haven't been enough with this week's heat advisories.
"As you know, we've had some temperatures that were not typical for this summer and, in particular, this week is supposed to be the highest, in the 90s," said library system Assistant Deputy Director for Public Services Dorinda Darden. "Even with the fans, the building itself was reading like 80 or higher."
The National Weather Service said the air will be cooler by the end of the week.
"The Crane Branch library is one of our busiest city branches and so we definitely wanted to give an opportunity to have the communities be able to have resources, library resources," Darden said. "So we have the bookmobile being at Bidwell Parkway in the Elmwood Village. They were there Monday from 11 to 3 and they will be there Wednesday."
The library system is also keeping the Soto Library at Porter Avenue and Niagara Street open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, when it would usually be closed. Darden said many people use both libraries and know where it is, so they can pick up or return their books at a different location on a day when they are used to going to a library.