Hit: Moving a library Part 3

[Kay Weisman <kweisman@NSLSILUS.ORG>]

The last group.

   Several years ago, I had to help box the entire contents of a very small
school's library when asbestos contamination was detected in the building.
I think it took two of us two days to box about 80 shelves of books, plus
assorted equipment and supplies.  We were really under pressure to
hurry--the building had to be sealed, and the library was to be stripped,
shelves and all.  Most of the library's collection and equipment were
stacked in a gym for the summer, but some A-V equipment was stored in
another school's library to avoid heat damage.  That was one of three times
I've had to box all or part of a collection.
  I strongly recommend that you collect banana boxes from the produce
department of your favorite supermarket.  One box holds approximately one
shelf of books.  The boxes have handles and are not too heavy when filled.
Label each box with the call numbers of the books in it.  You might try to
color-code boxes with a big stripe of felt-marker--one color for fiction,
one for non-fiction, etc.

  Good luck!  I like to drop in and work from time to time during the summer
too.  Maybe a little corner of an office somewhere could be reserved for
your use (what will the principal and counselor do?).
Cindy Carr, Librarian      Cleveland H.S.      www.cleveland.k12.ok.us
home e-mail: wccarr@ionet.net     school e-mail: cleve24@edumaster.net

I did all of this last summer.  I am glad I am in my new digs and it is all
behind me.

I'm at an independent private Catholic high school with approximately the
same amount of books.  The principal was determined that I NOT box up
anything before the last day of school.
We hired a moving company to move all the boxes and other furnishings into a
warehouse over the summer.  I knew that despite the determination of the
principal, wishes alone would not make the library up and ready the first
day of school at the end of summer.  So I insisted that I have a temporary
office where I could do work over the summer, where the computers would be
boxes and kept in air conditioning, and where all the AV equipment I
supervise could also be kept out of the warehouse for use by the summer
school people.
Luckily, in all the musical chairs that were being switched, there was a
space that could accomodate that wish.
Boxes were from the moving company but we had volunteers pack them.  At 3:30
on the last day of school our boxing/pizza party started.  The moving
company offered me colored labels for the boxes.  I used yellow for
everything in my office, red for the reference collection, green for
fiction, blue for the periodicals, and black for the nonfiction.  I had one
of my staff in charge of each color division.  I gave them a detailed list
of everything I expected them to do with the types of materials they were
packing.  The boxes were loaded in shelf order and a number was assigned to
each packed box. When volunteers showed up I sent them to one of these crew
chiefs.  That kept me free to answer any odd questions that came up. It
worked beautifully.  The only problem was that the smaller collections were
finished fast when the nonfiction had miles to go.  So I sent finished crews
to sections of the nonfiction and started them with numbers I knew the grew
behind them would never reach.  E.G  We packed 140 boxes of nonfiction, but
the labels jumped from 1-56, 700-719, 800-847, 900-,   Get the idea?
Another bad point was that eventually, there were still lots of books to be
packed but only two crews could work in the space because of the floor area.
So volunteers left early.  That was OK because there was nothing else I
could have them do.  We finished by 7pm, just as parents who came to help
when they got off work were arriving.  All we could do was offer them our
heartfelt gratitude, a slice of pizza, and the sincere wishes that they
might help us unpack at the end of the summer.
        The books were not put into the boxes in shelf order.  This is
because I knew the boxes would be stacked on top of each other.  By packing
the boxes tightly I knew no books would be crushed over the long summer.
Yes, it took a while after the boxes were unpacked to put them all in shelf
order but circumstances made it the right choice for me.
        It sounds as though you know exactly where your books will go, since
your shelves are not being touched.  I had to move into a totally new
configuration.  The movers had to assemble shelves.  They took way longer
than they should have.  I had volunteers hanging about twiddling their
thumbs for hours.  Meanwhile other movers brought the boxes in and tried to
arrange them by color and LOOSELY by number. Once we could start the work,
most of the volunteers could not hang around to see the job finished.  The
penitent movers did leave me their dollies, which made life a whole lot
easier.  I womanhandled stacks of boxes into numerical order on wheels in
feeder lines to shelving crews(under the same crew chiefs who supervised the
packing).  Once again, the nonfiction took the bulk of the work.  I and the
few hardy souls who stayed with me until the end were utterly exhausted.
Unpacking was supposed to start at noon but didn't get into full swing until
about 2 pm.  I left there at 9:30 pm.  Murder.
        Glad it's you, not me. ;-) Good luck
Carol Ann K. Winkler
St. Louis, Mo.
Kay--
        Last year I went through a similar experience, except that the
entire media center had to be emptied--down to every piece of furniture in
every room. This is one of those situations where you need "to hope for the
best and prepare for the worst".
        First, it took my aide, my student assistants, and I nearly three
weeks to box all the books and materials. (During that time, however, I had
2 days of training for the new automation system, and my aide's
father-in-law died, causing her to miss 4 days of work.) Our collection has
approximately 9000 volumes. Banker boxes worked best at holding the books,
but they are expensive. If you have a beer distributor nearby, you may be
able to get a loan of beer cartons (the high schools used these, much to the
dismay of their SADD group). Label everything! It takes longer to pack but
it makes unpacking much easier. We numbered every book box in shelf order,
and also put on the outside the Dewey Decimal number of the first and last
book in each box. Put your labeling on all four sides and top of the box.
        Second, as far as closing--we warned the teachers that this was
coming, but it still came as a surprise to many of them that parts of the
m.c. would be unavailable near the end of the year. We had to finish packing
before the demolition team came in--and they were due the Monday of the last
week of school. So we were allowed to close the m.c. for the last four weeks
of the year--and we needed to. You may want to consider stopping circulation
early and also letting teachers keep some books in their classrooms,
including books that may be needed in the fall (more about that later).
        Third, I had no access to the media center during the summer--for
the first time I did no library work over the vacation. It was under
construction until the last day of the summer. I did no ordering except for
some subscriptions. If you can avoid this situation, do so, because it took
a while for me to catch up in the fall.
      ---Not that that was so difficult, because none of the construction
work was done on time. We could not open until October, because the
furniture and shelving did not arrive on time--it was due in August. (I am
still waiting for the final touches on the shelving, as of February 2.) I
was able to spend a lot of time arranging my office, storeroom, and
periodical room while I waited. (Please don't ask how the teaching staff
responded to this delay--I did a lot of crawling over boxes of books in the
classroom where they were stored in order to find materials for my colleagues.)
        Finally, once the shelving was in, it only took us about 3 days to
replace the books on the shelves. We were ready to go--a good thing, since
we had lots of customers after the long delay!
        There have been articles about packing up libraries in SLJ and the
Book Report over the past several years. I strongly urge you to do some
research and lots of pre-planning. You can't do much to make the packing
easier, but if you are painstaking at that part of the job, it will make the
unpacking go much more easily.
        Best of luck--if you have any specific questions I might be able to
help with, please e-mail me.
I have been involved with packing up several libraries and it is a real
chore but also an opportunity to do some extensive weeding.
How long does it take to box everything up?
This depends on how much time you want to spend after school or during the
day,  20 to 30 hours would be a good estimate.
        Is there a library source for boxes that hold things in shelf order?
I went to the local liquor stores, groceries, etc. two or three months
ahead of time.  I found that this was a good size because they are still
manageable when full.  Books weight an awful lot.  We did use copy paper
boxes too and one year we were able to get a moving company to donate small
boxes.
         Did you use volunteers to help with this project?
I've used volunteers and students and anyone I could get.  Organization and
consistancy is the key though.  Be sure you have aplan for how you want the
boxes labeled and filled.  If you go by size you will have a nightmare in
the fall.  I find call number the best.
        Did you begin closing down areas with less use first and keep
                high use areas open until the very end?
It varied on how much time I had to do this in.  Do your Biographies first
then move to easy readers, 800's etc.  Remember proper labeling makes all
the difference.
        What special provisions did you make for computers, etc.
Be sure the computers and other equipment are moved to a non-construction
area, covered tightly with plastic, and will not be subjected to constant
moving.  Basically they will be out of commission for the summer.  If you
have older IBM's check with your technician about leaving them unplugged
for two to three months.  If the battery goes during this time you may have
problems with the hard drive later.
        I will have no access to the building all summer long--how did
                you select those necessary items that you will need
                during the summer?
This is up to you.
        What arrangements were made for incoming orders over the summer?
Be sure you identify a delivery point for these and the people ther are
aware of it.  Otherwise don't place any orders until the fall.
Look into shrink wrapping (or plastic wrap. Two of the libraries in our
district packed this way and were very pleased. One wrapped them on the
We had to do the same thing several summers ago.  We used a material
similar to a large Saran wrap.  It was suggested to me and works much
better than boxes.  You can wrap about 10 books at a time.  Label your
shelves with masking tape and roman numerals and letters - label the wrap
with a marker to match the shelves. Make a map - labelled.  Put everything
right back on your shelves after you wrap the books.  The custodians will
know exactly where everything goes back.  The wrap cuts with scissors after
the summer.  The map helps (measure) with shelving that is movable.
Ask if you have any questions - it's not something I'd want to do yearly -
but we survived.
Jeni Friedland
Good Luck moving your collection.  We moved ours my first year at Murry
Bergtraum High School.  We got a new carpet.  Yes it was worth all the work
but..
Suggestions:  1.  Many non library user were recruited...big strong students
with muscles.
2.  Number all shelves, Number all boxes the same length of the shelves.
 Students had no problem filling one box, with one shelf.
3.  All the boxes were stacked in the hall along the wall
4. Label special collections and number shelves and boxes.
The most difficult part was putting it all back in order:  This was time
consuming.  There were many mistakes and problems with the books not being
put in the right order.  This should be done with the librarians supervision
and the studnet shelvers.  It took too long to put the shelves back in oder
when students made mistakes.
If you are not going to have a company come in and do this then you need to
close that library completely.  COMPLETELY or it takes too long with
distraction of nonworking students and staff coming in with only one
question, or only to look at one book.  This does not work.
THE END -  After the move we had a big pizza party paid for by the student
government for all the library mover and shakers.  Good luck  Judith DAhill,
LIbrarian NYC