The Remains of a Massive Project

Shortly before I wrapped up my semester and left for the Prague Summer Seminar, we finished moving books out of the Reference Stacks. Major hump-busting to finish bringing back a few thousand items.

It was a strange couple weeks filled with all sorts of deadlines and pressures. I remember a particularly busted cart tipped over and just about broke me:

@bibliobebe Thomas Aquinas is coming for me

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 4, 2016

Then there was the day I spent 2 hours wheeling carts of books through the silent study room, which was the day we emptied the room minus the atlases:

Was gonna tweet something abt the students in the silent study room wondering where i got the endless steam of carts (2 hrs of wheelin past)

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 11, 2016

And then there was the day we got the atlases off the shelves and I took a big deep breath of accomplishment.

Omg... thought this day would never come... and before my big trip... what a dream come true! pic.twitter.com/ws9uQpcvON

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 12, 2016

We moved like 12,000+ volumes in less than six months (sweating brow emoji)

— ₭elci M. ₭elci (@bibliobebe) May 11, 2016

We're currently in a sort of purgatory where we're waiting with baited breath for the demolition to begin. The shelves are empty and we're answering questions regularly about why. Some time this summer, they will tear out the empty shelves and then recarpet the Reference Room and the entire south wing of the Geschke building. Flexible, movable furniture is on order. We'll see how it all plays out, but I figure this is one of the important moments where we listen to the needs of the students above what we believe the traditional library should be. The students need more space to be comfortable here, and we want them to be comfortable.