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The library where I work has just started a major renovation project. When I say "major," I mean "gut to the exterior walls and start over." We're knocking down the main staircase and moving it and the elevator shaft (that'll be the second time for the elevator shaft since I've been there), creating a whole new floor plan, and replacing the HVAC system and rewiring the building. As a result, we're moving out to a temporary location for the next 8-12 months.
Have you ever moved a library? Only about 40% of the collection will fit in the temporary location, so we had to pack in two phases: one group of things for the temporary location and one group of things for long-term storage. And not only do we have to pack and move the books and videos and music and such, we have to move the shelves, computers, phones, reference desk, vending machines, and everything else. As of today the collection is packed and moved, and most of the staff is at the temporary location frantically shelving things so we can reopen to the public on Monday (this is the second week we've been closed). And once we get the public part of the library up and running, we get to start over and move the office areas. We're planning to be in the new offices by mid-April.
This is what the library looked like this morning:
This is the northeast corner of the first floor. Those grey shelves way in the background ran across the entire north wall and housed the A/V collection. The overturned table in the foreground marks what was the kids' study area. There were computers along that green wall on the right for them to do homework on but that they mostly used to play Minecraft instead. That area was bordered on all sides by shelves (which you can see piled on the floor behind and to the left of the overturned table) that housed the middle school collection. The empty middle area between A/V and the former middle school area was the juvenile nonfiction collection.
This is the southeast corner of the first floor. The tall shelves on the left held the juvenile fiction collection. The shorter shelves on the right were one end of the picture book collection.
This is the northwest corner of the second floor. The shelves on the left were the 'Z' end of the adult fiction collection. The shelves along the back wall held the adult science fiction and fantasy collection. The empty space in the foreground used to be full of shelves that held the adult mystery collection.
We all got quite the workout over the last two and a half weeks, even with the help of the moving company. And I'm one of maybe half a dozen people who have been there long enough to have participated in the move the last time we renovated.
Have you ever moved a library? Only about 40% of the collection will fit in the temporary location, so we had to pack in two phases: one group of things for the temporary location and one group of things for long-term storage. And not only do we have to pack and move the books and videos and music and such, we have to move the shelves, computers, phones, reference desk, vending machines, and everything else. As of today the collection is packed and moved, and most of the staff is at the temporary location frantically shelving things so we can reopen to the public on Monday (this is the second week we've been closed). And once we get the public part of the library up and running, we get to start over and move the office areas. We're planning to be in the new offices by mid-April.
This is what the library looked like this morning:
This is the northeast corner of the first floor. Those grey shelves way in the background ran across the entire north wall and housed the A/V collection. The overturned table in the foreground marks what was the kids' study area. There were computers along that green wall on the right for them to do homework on but that they mostly used to play Minecraft instead. That area was bordered on all sides by shelves (which you can see piled on the floor behind and to the left of the overturned table) that housed the middle school collection. The empty middle area between A/V and the former middle school area was the juvenile nonfiction collection.
This is the southeast corner of the first floor. The tall shelves on the left held the juvenile fiction collection. The shorter shelves on the right were one end of the picture book collection.
This is the northwest corner of the second floor. The shelves on the left were the 'Z' end of the adult fiction collection. The shelves along the back wall held the adult science fiction and fantasy collection. The empty space in the foreground used to be full of shelves that held the adult mystery collection.
We all got quite the workout over the last two and a half weeks, even with the help of the moving company. And I'm one of maybe half a dozen people who have been there long enough to have participated in the move the last time we renovated.
Good luck!
Date: 2016-03-30 11:36 pm (UTC)From:Re: Good luck!
Date: 2016-03-31 03:28 am (UTC)From:And the office space we've been planning to move into may have just fallen through. There is an alternate space available, but we're not sure when it'll be ready for us to start moving into. Meanwhile, we'll have to schlep everything we catalog a mile down the street to where the collection is housed now.
Re: Good luck!
Date: 2016-03-31 11:57 pm (UTC)From:Re: Good luck!
Date: 2016-04-01 12:50 am (UTC)From:The tens of thousands of items going to the temp location had to have their locations changed in the catalog so we could keep track of what we had available, as opposed to what was in long-term storage. This meant all of those things had to be scanned in and batch changed. Guess which department was in charge of that? I'm so used to hearing steady beeping from the barcode scanners that I've slept through my alarm every day for the last 2 weeks.