[LM_NET] Hit: Moving general hints long

[Kris Fallon <librarychickie@GMAIL.COM>]

have a website that incorporates all the moving advice that we have had over
the years:

See if what you got as "hits" can add to it!
http://mikids.com/Library/moving.html





Have a line of dignataries--school and community and students--form a line
and hand from one to another the last few volumes before dedicating or
ribbon cutting.”







Our entire building was renovated, and the library was moved from the second
floor to the first




The most important advice I can give it LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!  I packed
everything in the boxes as close to shelf order as I could.  Then I labeled
each box with the call numbers.  I also numbered each box as it was filled.
Then, I made a master list of the numbers and what was in each one.

I took the list home with me for safekeeping over the summer!  When it was
time to put the books back on shelves, I knew exactly which box I needed
next.  Everyone laughed at me for being so pickyas I was boxing stuff up,
but they weren't laughing anymore when I had the whole library on the
shelves in order in 2-3 days (by myself with no help from anyone).





I just finished packing up my 13,000 volume school library in preparation
for a makeover.  I received a grant through Heart of America/Target
Corporation.  What is worse, is that I mostly did it myself and I only work
12 hours/week.  What I can tell you is that you will need way more boxes and
packing tape than you think you will.  I would say I probably have 200 boxes
being stored right now.  Oh, and invest in some really fat Sharpie markers.

I was lucky in that I received boxes from the school district, so I didn't
have to purchase those.  I basically started in the E section (picture
books) and boxed them spine up, in order.  Some people will tell you not to
do that, but I needed to box them in a way that would be easiest to reshelve
them.  Our renovation will only take about a month, so I wasn't too worried
about them getting damaged.  I also used the Sharpie to write (in big
letters) over all four sides and the tops of the boxes.  I put the number of
the box, the location (E, FIC, etc.), and the range that was housed in the
box (AA-BE, 599.11-599.99, etc.)







If you have money available, get professionals to pack you up. We have used
National Library Relocators (NLR): they work in the tri-state area and they
are fantastic. They will pack up your library in a few hours, help you store
onsite or provide storage off-site for you, and replace your books on your
shelves without a volume out of place. They are real professionals and great
to work with, and I highly recommend them.
http://www.nlrbookmovers.com/index.php
Good luck!



Try Quill office supply for boxes.  They have different strengths and most
have built in hand holds.  They ship quickly.  Figure running inches for
your collection and divide by the length of the box.  Chapter books will
take less as you can run them down one side and back up the other (if you
get what I mean).  Order less boxes and you can reorder if
you need more.  Label CLEARLY on end and sides with box number as well as
call number range, e.g. #23, FIC ALD - FIC BOW. If you map out the basic
locations on your new shelving, you can put boxes close to wherethey need to
go when time comes to unpack.







Kristina,.  Ask your book jobber if they have any available.  We use Follett
almost exclusively and they sent us two pallets of flattened book boxes for
each move.  The boxes are the correct size, incredibly sturdy and while you
have to tape them back into shape, they are all about the same size so they
stack well too.  I guess it wouldn't hurt to ask to see if your jobber may
have some available.

Another hint, when you label your boxes, use different colors for different
sections of the library.  Even though we labeled the boxes fiction,
non-fiction, biographies, etc., we also used different colors for each
label.  Fiction all blue, non-fiction all red, etc.  That way even at a
glance from across the room you could tell what area it belonged in to
unpack.

* *

* *

When we moved for remodeling we went to the local grocery stores and got
banana boxes.  They were perfect.  They are very strong and can be stacked
for longer periods of time than regular boxes without crumpling.  They also
have slide-on tops and hand holes for easy closing and moving.  The ones we
got were wax-coated so there was no problems with food residue and we didn't
have any bug problems.  We used a classroom to store our books and had the
janitors remove all of the furniture so we could create long rows of boxes.
 We had the same size collection as you and we fit everything in one room
(not including textbooks).

Here are some pointers I gained from other librarians that helped me a lot:

-Put the books in the boxes in shelf order, spine up and don't worry about
filling the box completely
-Have volunteers fill the boxes then check them yourself to make sure they
are in order
-Label the boxes with the Dewey range so you can look for books that kids
insist they returned
-Stack the boxes no more then 3 or 4 high, in Dewey order with the labels
clearly visible
-Set up some shelves in the storage area for books that are returned after
packing, shelve them in Dewey order

Once the library was finished we were able to reshelve all of the books in
less than 2 days.



Of course, everyything had to be packed up.  WE had great success borrowing
every available book cart in the district and starting with those, we were
able to get about 180 linear feet of books on carts.  This made packing and
unpacking a much smoother process.  I understand some moving companies even
have carts for rent.



Scholastic donated an entire mini-van of boxes to pack other books, so boxed
did not cost us anything.  They just gave us used boxes- which were
absolutely fine.  My 15,000 volume collection fit on the carts and on 2
pallets.  (I weeded like crazy before moving any books).



It's an enormous amount of work, but we packed up books (with some volunteer
help from parents and teachers in 2 days.  Unpacking took about 3 (more
thought about how to fit books best on new shelving).

* *

* *

* *

Search the archives for "moving a library" and you will find tons of advice.
 I decided to get three oversized rolls of Saran-type wrap from our
cafeteria suppliers.  I labeled each run of shelving A-P, and put a spine
label on the front of each shelf with a letter-number combination. Then, two
boys lifted each shelf, books and all, off the stacks, set it
on a stool, and another person wrapped over and around with the plastic
wrap.    Banquet tables were placed around the perimeter and in the middle
of a nearby classroom, and the shelves were wheeled on dollies to that room,
and stacked under and on top of the tables.  My collection fit in a single
classroom.  The real beauty of doing it this way became
evident when it was time to put everything back together.   Workers simply
took any shelf of books, and if it said "D27", they went to shelfrun D and
put it on the brackets next to 37 (I had labelled each shelf and the upright
next to it).  It was easy to remove the plastic with a box cutter, and the
entire load of trash fit in three garbage bags.   We didn't have to get rid
of hundreds of dollars of boxes, either.






 contact a Follett rep he/she may have boxes on hand that you can use. We
did that for a high school library in the same situation



We did this two years ago.  We ordered boxes from Quill that turned out to
be the perfect size, which was slightly smaller than a xerox box.  They were
sturdy enough we were able to stack them in the storage pods, and they held
up remarkably well.  They held about one shelf to a box, which was perfect.
 A couple of tips that helped a lot also are the following:
1.  Put a book end in every box.  Then, as you unpack them, you have the
bookend for them.  Otherwise, the bookends will be iin the last box you
unload.
2.  Write the call numbers of the books in the box (i.e 394-398) on every
box OR number your boxes by type, i.e. NF 1, NF 2, etc. , and write it on at
least 3 sides of your boxes.  That way, you don't need to spend a lot of
time turning boxes around to find the right box after they've been piled up
in storage.
3.  By keeping a shelf to a box, when unpacking, we were literally able to
stick the boxes on the correct shelves, and then come back later an unpack
them a shelf at a time.  It worked great.  We did sometimes fill up a box
with paperbacks, which got filed somewhere else, just to cut down on the
number of boxes we needed.
If you have prioritizes your stuff in packing, i.e. the stuff you need
first, second, etc., using color coded labels will help.  We moved in
stages, from completelly shut down, to a small temporary room, to the real
room, so we had to prioritize things we didn't need until the end, things we
needed for the small room, etc.  Color coding worked.
Hope these are helpful,





We are moving this year and are planning one shelf = one box.  After packing
carefully and marking clearly, we hope to get an Eagle Scout troop in to
help unpack.

But we did end up ordering about 1500 boxes.  I am tired just thinking about
it.  We begin packing April 6th and must be done by May 1.


Make a map of your new library and figure how to split your shelves.  Make
an Excel doc showing which books go into which shelves.  I will attach my
doc so you can see what we have done.  I gave each row a letter, then
numbered the shelves on that row.  Be sure and look at sheet 2 in the doc
for the pertinent information


-- 
Kristina Fallon, LMS
Robert Morris School, k-8
So Bound Brook, NJ
librarychickie@gmail.com
"Only the educated are free." - Epictus, (Greek-born, Roman slave and
philosopher- 55 AD - 135 AD)

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