Library Re-carpeting #I forget - On the Home Stretch!

 Just a few areas left! The staff break room and kitchen area are looking pretty bad:

High traffic, decades of spilled food and leaking who-knows-what.

The back reference area (also high traffic):

Oh, look, someone already tried to patch it once. I don't see a difference, do you?

The manager's office fared a little better, although you can definitely tell where decades of people have set and scuffed their feet!

And the circulation area:

pretty much worn everywhere. Originally it was going to be moved out, but I heard they may just be cutting around it - don't quote me on that - at any rate, I'm sure they'll do a better job than the last guys:

Last but not least, the Southwest Room, also known as the Eugene Manlove Rhodes Room, after an author who passed through here 8,462 years ago. (Librarian's note: Should you end up with leftover napkins embossed with the name "Manlove", do not, repeat, do NOT use them for a program involving adolescent boys. #lessonslearned)

The new ceiling (to improve lighting and heating/cooling) is almost done, and does not obscure the special areas of the room - 

The old teller wall,

the stained glass,

or the fireplace.

My favorite item in the room, a book donated to us and personally autographed by Teddy Roosevelt before he was President Roosevelt, is safely tucked away somewhere. And, no, I don't mean somewhere like, my house. Darnit. 

Your cool perspective shot of the day.

The old carpet should be coming up today, with the new in shortly after! What on earth will we do with all our time, then?

Library Re-Carpeting Part 12 1/2

Just some quick before and after pictures of the area they started yesterday. These guys are fast!

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After. The copier is back! Just not plugged in. Sigh.

The photos don't really do the dinginess of the old carpet justice, but IRL it's a whole new area!

Library Re-Carpeting Part 12: Yes, Still.

The biggest part of the adult side is almost complete and things are slowly being moved back into place.

This is where the public computers go, so there has been a bit of a nationwide panic for the past couple days. I thought about passing out copies of Library Lil, but I don't know that everyone would get it.

Computers going in and out means lots of trips for Facilities (which is short a couple people right now), and MIS, but they have been good sports about it.

 Next up is the staff work area, in two parts. First all the desks are being pushed into the back reference area, and anywhere else they will fit.

I realize most people have never seen this area, so you'll have to imagine what it normally looks like. The processing area, where books are mended and new books are prepared for the shelves:

and the office area, full of desks and shelves and computers:

And the copier, which is what hurts me the most:

Back out in the stacks, we can't unpack the books and put them back until the shelves are in exactly the right place, and stable. 

It would kind of be a bummer if a whole stack tipped over and squished someone. Plus, then all the books would be out of order. Not to mention blood on the new carpet. In the meantime, summer reading programs have started, so I am of no help whatsoever. So, please bear with us just a little bit longer! There is a light at the end of the tunnel, we promise!

Library Re-Carpeting Part 11: Really???

At the beginning, the decision was made to keep the library open during the entire re-carpeting project. We looked at circulation statistics as well as what information is most readily available online, to decide which books would be most useful and which could be packed away temporarily. 

The city rented a gigantic pod which is parked in front of the building, and staff and volunteers spent days packing and numbering boxes of books to go into it. Books to be kept out have been moved 2 or 3 or more times, as we try to stay a section ahead of the carpeters. This means a lot of sore bodies, chapped hands, and broken fingernails. It's 106 outside, so even with our AC working hard, we are hot and we stinketh.

We are keeping a good attitude, joking about the ever-expanding meaning of that line about "and all other duties as required". Most of our patrons are very understanding, and happy that there are still at least some books and computers available. They compare the ever-changing routes through the library to the local grocery chain's marketing techniques, and take finding the DVDs as a weekly challenge.

Some even pitch in and help!

 But, then there are the patrons who stand in the middle of the library and loudly complain, or those who grumble just loudly enough to make sure we hear them, that we should just be closed.  

???

Okay, I get it. Really. It's hot, so you are already feeling out of sorts. You have ten other errands to run, and this was supposed to be a quick stop.  Maybe you like knowing what you are doing, and were comfortable with the library as it was, and suddenly you feel like you have entered a foreign country. Maybe you're used to heading towards a certain shelf for your favorites each time, and now today that shelf doesn't even exist. Change is hard for some people. Even librarians - you don't hear some of the meltdowns that happen behind the scenes, but trust me, we've had some doozies! 

The thing is, there is only so much we can do. You can't rip old carpet up and put new carpet down without taking everything off the floor. When I was in high school, and our city library was remodeled, the entire collection was moved to a different building for a year. We did not have that option (and, let me tell you, the move back was a nightmare I don't ever want to repeat!), so all we can do is box and shift and move and move again.

In the meantime, we're trying to make sure you can still get to where you need to go,

and we're putting things back together as fast as we can,

while still trying to keep everyone safe.

We'll provide as many services as we humanly can, and if the walking is too much I'll personally go grab your book for you. Closing completely, so nobody gets any services at all? Not on the agenda.

Library Re-Carpeting Part 10: Just an Update.

FYI, the library is not a quiet place right now. You can't move metal shelves silently, and frankly, we aren't even trying. We are also too tired to walk over and whisper to someone that we need that hammer. We're just yelling across the building. Sorry. But not really.

This morning we needed to move the metal shelving back onto the part of the adult side that was finished. Those shelves are REALLY heavy, and we couldn't pull them across the new carpet the way we callously pulled them across the old. One of our pages developed a system based on the Egyptian pyramids, involving long boards and pieces of PVC - which worked really well, and which I completely failed to photograph.

To move each shelving unit, we had to take all the shelves off. Then, once it was moved, we had to put the shelves back on. Fun, eh? Fortunately, a few brave members of the city's finance department came over to help in the two hours before we opened:

Hooray for tall people!

Making sure everything is even.

So far, I have only dropped one metal book end on my foot. This was probably not the best day to wear sandals.

Heave!

Is there a librarian anywhere who does not loathe these things? Who has not almost lost an eye when one popped out at them? Unfortunately, they are not in the trash can because we are throwing them away, they are just here for storage.

99% of our patrons have been wonderful and understanding. There are, of course, those who can't understand why you won't let them walk under unstable shelving to get that DVD they just have to watch, but we're going to be sticklers for safety that way anyway.

Now we get to clear out the next section to be carpeted. It's getting there! Thank-you to those 99% for your patience!

Library Re-Carpeting Part 9: Yes, I Know There's an Adult Side.

But, who cares? My side is done!

Okay, okay, I guess that side is important, too. 

The carpet guys came in this morning with the carpet for the first section already cut. They rolled it out, glued it down, put up the molding, and were packing their van by 2PM!

I wonder how many patrons go home and decide their own carpet needs to be replaced? We really should have negotiated a commission or something.

I think the two colors look nice together, while still giving us two clear 'zones'.

When we have field trips, now, I can simply tell kids to "stay on the blue carpet".

We are still finding treasures. For some inexplicable reason, there was paneling around this column:

And, hidden in the paneling were these books:

Current NYT best Sellers, I tell ya! Not only do they not have bar codes, some don't even have ISBNs. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they aren't listed in our collection any more.

It's a good thing this cold is lingering - I can just barely smell the new carpet odor, which would normally send me into instant migraine. Some Romans 8:28 coming to mind. Tomorrow we (by which I mean other people not me) will be moving the shelving back into this area, then we (by which I may actually mean me, too) can start moving some of the adult collection back into place, while the next area is prepared for the carpet folks. 

That area includes the entrance, so people will temporarily be shuttled through the multipurpose room and children's room, vindicating our decision to push SRP programs to following week. I am wondering if it is feasible to ask people to leave their shoes in the MP Room before they trek across my new carpet - what think you?

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!