It will be at least Monday before London's Central Library is open to the public again.
The downtown facility has been closed since Tuesday when part of its electrical system broke down.
"Finding the materials to repair it has become really complex," says Ellen Hobin, spokesperson for the London Public Library. "At this point we know that we won't have the issue repaired by the weekend, so we are having to close the library on Friday and Saturday."
Hobin says the new part is being shipped from the United States. Once it arrives and is installed, load testing will have to be done to make sure the system is operating properly and safely.
While the power issue has the Central branch closed, the library's other branches have remained open but without phone and internet access.
"Their phones aren't working but our main phone line is," says Hobin. "They do have computer service now. That's what they were without for a couple of days. Our wireless isn't operating yet in our branches but public internet is, as well as all of our computer systems that people access online. So the catalog to borrow and renew books from home is available."
Library programs at Central have been cancelled for the week and due dates and hold times for books at Central will be adjusted.
Hobin says Londoners have been really supportive during this whole ordeal.
"What we have heard is that people understand how hard our staff are working, at the branches they are seeing them check out books manually and they just tell us that they love the library and they can't wait until it's back open again."
