About 260 Guttenburg schoolchildren cut class on May 18, 1989, to help move more than 15,000 books to the new public library. The new building featured five times the space of the previous location, an 800-square-foot room inside the town’s municipal building. The $250,000 brick building was constructed without federal or state funding; the majority of funds were raised in advance, with an April 1988 bond measure providing the last $65,000 for the building. The library opened the day after the move, with a formal dedication held on July 1, 1989.