The then-empty D-level will be renovated first. Then, as renovations move up the building, the floor being worked on will have its books shifted to the then-empty space in D.

In this way, library officials plan to have the books remain accessible in their temporary locations throughout the process except when they are in transit.

The renovations are expected to take between three and four weeks per section, with the exception of D-level, whose extensive renovations will begin the project with three to four months of work.

"It's a huge logistical operation, but they are confident they can do it," Zewinski says.

Great American Smoke Out

When Widener was built it was made of the most lavish materials available: a then state-of-the-art stack system and tons of marble and granite.

It was thought that with such quality materials the library would not burn--and administrators at the time did not want to put a sprinkler system that in the event of a fire would destroy the books with water.

"You have marble, you have steel, you have brick and you thought that with tightly packed books" there could not be a fire, Cline says. And the library's planners did not prepare for one.