{"id":1150,"date":"2020-02-24T16:17:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T16:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/?p=1150"},"modified":"2020-02-26T15:27:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T15:27:25","slug":"wheres-my-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wheres-my-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Where\u2019s My Book?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019ve been on O\u2019Neill Library\u2019s 4th or 5th floors lately, you might have noticed a few things out of place. Or a few thousand things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An O\u2019Neill Library staff member shifting books, as seen through empty rows of shelves on O\u2019Neill level 5.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Can\u2019t find a book? Until the shifting projects are finished later this year, follow the temporary call number ranges on the ends of the shelving units. (Also note: for now, the usually helpful shelf number provided by the catalog\u2019s \u201clocate\u201d function may be inaccurate.) <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Staff at O\u2019Neill Library are working on two major projects to shift books in the collection, both to open space on the fifth floor for study areas, and to reduce the density of books to allow for more acquisitions. The empty ranges of shelves are temporary. On the fourth floor a dozen paces from the stairwell, the empty shelves mark one front in the library\u2019s battle against overcrowding. The project on that floor has paused for several months to allow work on a more pressing front: space on the fifth floor needs to be cleared in time for construction crews arriving after this semester\u2019s exam period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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An O\u2019Neill Library staffer shifting books on O\u2019Neill level 5.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an aggressive schedule,\u201d said Rodrigo Castro, Head of Access Services, \u201cBut we\u2019ll have it done.\u201d He was standing in the stacks in his shifting project attire–jeans and sweatshirt–ready for several hours of moving heavy bound volumes of periodicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The projects began in 2018 with a concern that several areas in the collection had reached capacity: there was no way to add new volumes in fast-growing subjects without major rearranging. As Mr. Castro and his staff embarked on an inventory and heat-map of shelf density, another wrinkle was added: plans to add study space on the fifth floor. So, in addition to reducing O\u2019Neill\u2019s open stacks collection from 84% to 75% capacity to allow for new acquisitions, they would need to clear a space on the 5th floor occupied by 132 shelf-ranges holding 25,000 volumes. (That\u2019s 1056 shelves, or about 1 kilometer of shelf space.)  In all, 250-300,000 volumes would need to be moved to O\u2019Neill\u2019s high-density storage area, known to library staff by its room number: 150.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All by itself, that\u2019s a big task, which involves first identifying volumes that haven\u2019t circulated for 30 years and works duplicated by other print holdings or new electronic holdings. But there was an added challenge. \u201c150 was basically full,\u201d said Paul Bridden, Manager of Circulation & Collection Maintenance Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paul Bridden, Manager of Circulation & Collection Maintenance Services, adjusts a shelf on O\u2019Neill\u2019s level 5.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Castro is philosophical about the project. \u201cPatrons don\u2019t realize it, but library collections are in constant motion,\u201d he said. \u201cThis kind of thing is happening all the time, but on a smaller scale. This job is big, so it\u2019s impacting our users\u2019 ability to locate items. We\u2019re trying to minimize that impact by making sure their access to materials is never interrupted. Anything we transfer will be housed onsite, in 150, and can be retrieved in a matter of minutes when necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fourth floor shifting project began in the summer of 2019. The fifth floor project began in January 2020. Nine staff members (including Mr. Castro and Mr. Bridden) work a combined 60-70 hours per week on the project. Between 8:00am and 9:00pm Monday through Friday, at least one staff member is either condensing books on the 5th floor, moving them to the staging area of empty shelves on the fourth floor to be moved later to processing on the second (and then to 150), or packing up long-unused books in 150 to be shipped to an offsite storage facility in Danvers, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a real-time version of Tetris,\u201d said Nicole Kubishta, Evening Access Services Assistant. Mr. Bridden had his own metaphor: \u201cIt\u2019s like a giant bike chain. If one link stops, the whole bike comes to a halt.\u201d When volumes are transferred, they aren\u2019t simply moved: each volume\u2019s record in the library\u2019s management system has to be updated. (Likewise, books leaving 150 for Danvers are individually scanned, and their records updated with storage box numbers.) That work is carried out by specialists on the second floor in the processing area. This project is so big, though, that they can\u2019t fit all of the books being processed in their work area; the backlog is stored temporarily on empty shelves on the fourth floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jacob Reyna, Collection Maintenance Assistant, kneels to shift books from a low shelf on O\u2019Neill Library\u2019s level 5.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The work is quite physical. \u201cIt\u2019s the lowest shelves,\u201d said Mr. Bridden. \u201cAt the end of the day, my knees know I\u2019ve been bending down over and over.\u201d Hands chafe, backs and knees get stiff, but it\u2019s physical in a different way as well. Rather than carry a tape measure, staff assess the targeted empty space on each shelf with their hands. \u201cTwo adult fists side by side is eight to ten inches,\u201d said Paul Bridden. \u201cThat\u2019s the empty space we need on each shelf for future growth.\u201d Ms. Kubistha said her hands aren\u2019t that big, so she measures fingertips to a freckle on her forearm. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of my library cubit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Kubistha said many of the bound periodicals in the call numbers starting with \u201cA\u201d–the part of the catalog categorized as \u201cgeneral,\u201d which includes most popular magazines–were especially heavy; popular magazines are printed on glossy paper and often wider and taller than academic journals. \u201cThere was a lot of Der Spiegel<\/em>,\u201d she said, referring to the popular German news magazine. 215 bound volumes, to be precise, each weighing up to ten pounds. In all, literally a ton. \u201cI can usually get through about 3 shelves an hour. Der Spiegel was slower.\u201d But she also paused from time to time to appreciate the collection. \u201cA German theology journal, Theologische Literaturzeitung<\/em>, went all the way back to 1876. That was pretty cool,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was also pretty dusty, to be honest.\u201d But the reward is knowing the collection much better. \u201cWhen a patron asks for help finding a book,\u201d she said, \u201cI know exactly where it is. There\u2019s a good chance I\u2019m the one who put it there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There have been setbacks. As staff got underway with the fifth-floor project, they quickly realized that the original plan to transfer only single monographs wouldn\u2019t open enough space. \u201cWe had to get into multi-volume sets,\u201d said Mr. Bridden. \u201cThat meant going back to the bibliographers for expert assessment. They\u2019ve been tremendously helpful, using their expertise to identify materials that need to stay in the stacks and other that can move to onsite storage. We can\u2019t depend solely on circulation statistics for a project like this; we have to get it right, especially for researchers who depend on shelf-browsing in their research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how you measure it–in kilometers, tons, or hours–it\u2019s a big job. These are the staff members doing the heavy lifting: Anna Bartolini, Alison Beattie, Paul Bridden, Rodrigo Castro, Neshat Khan, Jeff Kohl, Nicole Kubishta, Shannon Reilly, and Jacob Reyna. Give them a hearty thanks when you see them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of O\u2019Neill Library\u2019s daytime staff standing among the books they\u2019re shifting (l ro r): Paul Bridden, Alison Beattie, Shannon Reilly, Anna Bartolini, Jacob Reyna.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Jonathan Cazeau (l) and Neshat Khan (r), Evening Access Services Assistants, who shift books between 11pm and 7am, in addition to staffing the circulation desk and other duties.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are two major shifting projects at O\u2019Neill library that may impact how you locate items in the stacks on levels 4 and 5. Staff is hard at work making room for more items in the collection and for study spaces on level 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"series":[],"coauthors":[33],"class_list":["post-1150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1150"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1161,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1150\/revisions\/1161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1150"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}