The Buellton Library at 140 West Highway 246 closed on Wednesday and will soon move to a new location, once construction is complete. 

The library’s new home will be at the historic Willemsen property located at 202 Dairyland Road. Construction is expected to finish in October, in time for a opening in November, according to Scott Wolfe, Buellton City Manager. 

Buellton Library staff will begin packing the library’s collection on Thursday. 

While the Buellton library is closed, Wolfe suggests residents visit the Solvang Library or the Goleta Valley Library.

The city of Buellton oversees the library facility but library services are provided by the city of Goleta.

Buellton, Solvang, Los Olivos and Santa Ynez libraries left the Santa Barbara Public Library system in July 2019 for the Goleta Valley Public Library. Goleta went independent from the Santa Barbara Library system in July 2018. 

Wolfe said they wanted to keep the old location open longer, until construction at the new location was complete, but the closure has to happen now so renovations can begin for an expanded Senior Center.

The Senior Center obtained $180,000 in grant funding for renovations, and if they don’t begin construction soon, the project would lose the funding, he said.  

Renovations are expected to begin in September and should be completed in December, according to Wolfe. 

“We’re trying to make this as pain free for the community as possible, but we’re up against some calendar deadlines here, and there’s a lot of grant funding at stake so we needed to make the decision to do what we’re doing right now,” Wolfe said. “We’re working with the library staff to help them and make the transition as smooth as possible.”

The city acquired the Willemsen property in 2020 and the City Council spent a year deciding what to do with the upper portion of the property before deciding to move the library. 

Wolfe said the new library will be larger and will include community rooms. The expanded senior center will allow for more gatherings that haven’t been happening since the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I think both of them are going to benefit Buellton residents tremendously,” Wolfe said.

All programs scheduled at the Buellton Library for after Aug. 14 have been canceled.

Any holds awaiting pick-up that weren’t picked up by Wednesday have been canceled and have to be replaced through the Aspen catalog for pickup at another Black Gold library location, according to the library.

The Black Gold system manages deliveries and resource sharing between branches. 

Any holds placed through the online catalog can be picked up at any Black Gold Library location.  

During this transition the library staff is asking the community to not donate books or audiovisual materials. Any materials due can still be dropped off at the library so they can be packed up for the new location.

Once the library is vacated, staff will be working on outreach services such as story time, digital literacy resources, and card registrations.