Illiteracy in the Library?

In search of a bit of Lenten reading, I went online last night to check whether my local library's copy of the new Barbara Brown Taylor book was checked in, and found this rather unexpected message where the search field should have been:

Due to the Adult Services renovation, the Nonfiction, Audiobooks on Cassette, Reference, and Paperback collections will be inaccessible until further notice.

The implicated renovation is phase 2 of a full overhaul of the building interior. Last spring they revamped the foyer and circulation area, and if the course of that project is an indication, this one should be done well and in good time - "until further notice" is perhaps a melodramatic choice of words, since the whole thing is scheduled to take something like six weeks.

But really, the entire adult nonfiction and reference collections will be completely inaccessible? That's kind of embarrassing.

I'm slightly reminded of my local library back in Massachusetts. The library I primarily used was in a larger, adjacent town, since the town where I actually lived was a bedroom community with a handy location but only 2,000 residents. The public library in the little town willingly advertised itself as, and I quote, "strong in popular fiction." Sigh.