The Seismic Shift 2015 is Over!
21st Century Library, Circulation Services Posted: November 6th, 2015Planning for the shift began over a year ago with a rotating roster of staff and faculty: Rich Gause, Frank Allen, Andrew Hackler, Ven Basco, Lindsey Ritzert, Andria Barratt, and Megan Humphries. While new members came in with transitions in staffing, bringing new perspectives, our goal was always the same: to find the most effective way to clear the 5th floor.
We ran studies of the collection to nail down the scope and procedures of the project. Our analysis was detailed enough to dynamically leave growth space through the collection, continuously keep track of the space we were gaining, and ensure we were meeting our goals. With a budget and timetable set, we hired students in stages to meet increasing workloads.
On June 26th we moved our first book on the 1st floor gaining our first few inches of space. We worked through the General Collection handful by handful, cartful by cartful, section by section, aisle by aisle, and floor by floor. Shifting a collection this size becomes a case study in aggregating totals, from inches per shelf gained to the minutes per truck spent loading/traveling/unloading to the monotony per hour of doing a single task for months. On Tuesday, November 3rd we moved our last book.
Without the countless student hours of sweat and the commitment of staff (Megan Humphries especially) to work late, this project would not have made it off the ground floor.
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