The Idaho Springs Library is hosting a fund-raiser Oct. 18 at Tommyknocker Brewery for its elevator project.
The event, called Library Night at Tommyknockers, costs $15 for adults and $10 for children under 12. Tickets can be purchased at the library or at the door.
A portion of the proceeds will go toward putting a $180,000 elevator in the 106-year-old Carnegie Library. The work is being done as part of $570,000 in interior restoration work set to begin next fall and be completed in June 2013.
During construction, the library will be housed in the former middle school library off Highway 103.
The money, according to project coordinator Phyllis Adams, will likely come from both community fund-raisers and grants. Library Night at Tommyknockers is expected to be the first of several efforts over the next few months.
Adams said the fund-raisers will help with securing grants because it shows grant-giving organizations that the community is behind the effort.
In addition to the elevator, the library will have refinished woodwork, new carpeting and lighting, new circulation desks and new shelves. It will also become more accessible to those with mobility issues.
The library will also increase its 12 public-use computers to 50, which will include laptops and iPads, giving visitors the ability to sit where they please.
“Over half of the visitors to the library in 2010 were there to use public-use computers,” Adams said. “The whole layout design is just going to be more user-friendly.”
The library also will have a history room, which will contain microfiche, research books and bound volumes of the Clear Creek Courant. That room will also double as a small public meeting room.
The library, originally built in the early 1900s with a $10,000 grant from steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, is one of the few Carnegie Libraries still being used as it was intended.
Last year, the exterior of the building was refurbished at a cost of more than $200,000.
Work included a new roof, gutters and downspouts, and brick replacement and repainting, to return it to its original 1904 look. The work was paid for by the State Historical Fund, the city of Idaho Springs and the library district.

Contact Ian Neligh at couranteditor@evergreenco.com, and check www.clearcreekcourant.com for updates and breaking news.