As I wrote the title for this post, I realized how seldom I see this type of discussion in the blogosphere. There are many professionals discussing technology, but no one is out here talking about call numbers and shelving!
My library is organized by LC call numbers, but there is no flow. Over the course of several years and a number of temporary shifts that became permanent, the collection jumps around throughout the building. At 2.5 million+ books, the notion of reorganizing is fool hearty unless the building is on fire, underwater, or both.
We are in the unique position of having completed a recent remodel, increasing square footage by roughly 35%. These new spaces are allowing us to take a big picture approach to the layout of the stacks in the entire building. Additionally, we will be spending $2.5 million on high-density mobile shelving over the next couple of years; a project that will enable us to relocate our interfiled bound journals to a single location. This relocation will create growth space throughout the collection and make it feasible to realign the entire building into a continuous call number flow. You will find A on the 8th floor and work your way down to Z on the 2nd floor.
I’m very excited about the scope of the project, as it allows me to return to one of the things I do best in the big bucket of Access Services. I’ll share more as the project evolves and include some pictures of the work in progress.
