Library Re-Carpeting Part 8: One Room Down!

Wow! Wednesday at 10AM the contractors brought the carpet rolls in, and at noon Thursday, they finished the last of the molding.

They suggested waiting 24 hours to put anything on it, so I used the time to indulge my OCD-ness.

The shelves in yellow were the ones closest to the door in the room where they were being stored, and we needed those out first to get to shelf "K", which needed some minor repairs before books could go on it.

We had many hands scheduled to move the books once the furniture was back in place, so I put together a spreadsheet dividing the collection by range. Then I made enough copies for each person to be handed a copy with their assignment highlighted

I had a roll of cheap masking tape that won't stick to anything, but you know us children's librarians, we can't throw anything away. Vindication: perfect for marking the floor without leaving sticky residue!

Side note: after much discussion, we have concluded that this is not exactly like the carpet sample we chose. But, we like it anyway, so it's all good.

Friday afternoon we moved some of the outer shelves in, and one person wiped them all down so we would be starting everything off fresh and clean.

The puppets also came home with me for a bath. Looked like the scene of a bizarre massacre when they were drying.

 We even got a few sections of books moved back in, and shelf-read!

Monday morning was the big push to get the furniture moved in. It got too busy to take pictures, but with the help of four other city employees, by 10AM it looked like this:

And, by early afternoon, like this:

We were done by 5PM! Thank-you sooooooooooo much to all the staff members and others who pitched in, and who humored my charts and spreadsheets.

We are still finding treasures under the shelves:

These books don't even have bar codes on them, so they have been lost literally for decades. The bookmark on the left lists hours and a phone number that are way before my time, and the scrap at the top gives rules for a summer reading program that also predates me. A whopping two cents was included in today's 'take', although one penny was from 1966, which was at least a little bit interesting.

While all of this was taking place, the children's clerk was anchored to our temporary desk area, where he gave out over 250 prizes just today, and signed up many more SRP participants! I am glad to say the turmoil isn't keeping kids from reading, and we heard many favorable compliments as they were finally able to come into the 'new' room and check things out (literally and figuratively.) 

When the whole library is finished, we will have an open house to celebrate and show it all off. On one hand that seems like a long way away, but I have the feeling the time will pass quickly!

P.S. Almost forgot - our new Reference Librarian started today! Talk about baptism by fire! Welcome, Lisa, and thanks for not running screaming from the building yet!