Minor Moves - Back Periodicals and Videos

The next deadline the library staff faces is to prepare the lower periodical stacks for the installation of a wheelchair lift that will make the Conference Room handicap accessible. This lift will be installed off the north hallway in the area where Barb Nelson Gingerich's office is located, just outside the Conference Room. Barb will soon be moving into the former bookstore sales area in the south wing. DJ Construction is installing a window in that room in preparation for Barb's relocation.

The library's highest priority is to clear out the back periodical stacks so that DJ workers can begin demolition around the stairwell. On Thursday, Lois Longenecker and student Craig Neufeld shifted the remaining back periodical volumes to the far side of the room. Craig moved oversized bound volumes of Mennonite newspapers onto the carrels. This picture was taken down one of the aisles and shows a carrel at the far end and the compacted bound volumes on the shelves.

These back periodicals will eventually be located in the old basement book stacks. But, before that can happen, volunteers will move the gold shelving from the library reading room down to basement storage. This gold shelving will hold the back periodicals and other little used materials that have been stored in boxes during construction.

The audiovisual collection and other materials on the south wall of the lower periodical stacks also need to be moved. Craig Neufeld has already taken the videos and DVD's to their final home in the east end of the south wing of the new library. This small area of shelving behind the back periodicals will hold all of our AV collection. The adjacent room will have video viewing equipment for individuals and small groups. There is still some adjustment being done to the lighting in this area so there is a ladder in the photo and some fixtures are in pieces.

Notice that the green boxes of Student Papers and General Papers have also made their move up to this area. In the distance you can see the end of the back periodical shelving.

The AV collection includes CD's, slides, and audiotapes which will soon be shelved near the videos and DVD's. But, what about the filmstrips, LP's (what?), maps, transparencies and picture sets? Should these outdated formats be shelved on the ground floor? relegated to lower level storage? discarded? What do you think?

These moves all took place while I was participating in the Bridgefolk Catholic-Mennonite Conference and leading tours to the Mennohof visitors' center in Shipshewana. Thank you Lois, Craig and Joanne!

First Sale in the Bookstore

All week long, Christina Litwiller has pushed cartloads of books from the old bookstore around the long corridors of Waltner Hall to the new bookstore. She organized books and other merchandise in order to open the new bookstore in time for the Bridgefolk gathering which began today, Thursday afternoon.

Actually, the first sale in the new bookstore happened on Tuesday, when Mary Sue Miller of Goshen wandered in looking for a place to purchase a copy of the new hymnal supplement, Sing the Story.

AMBS is very fortunate to have an experienced bookstore manager managing the transition to the new bookstore. Christina Litwiller is a full time student from Illinois.

Major Moves Completed

The library move continued on Tuesday as books were taken from the Conference Room and the Witmarsum Room to the north wing of the new library. Debbie Musser, the Hallett coordinator demonstrates perfect book moving technique here as she unloads the blue shelves of the Witmarsum Room.

Seven sections of grey shelving needed to be taken from the reading room to the north wing of the new library. Jess Smith and Joseph Kabui from the AMBS Summer Crew separated the sections. Joseph and Matt Tschetter managed to carry two entire units into the building without unbolting the bases.

Getting the filled missles up the steps from the lower level presented an engineering challenge to Al Parton of Hallett Movers. He expertly constructed a plywood ramp along the reserve shelves to an elevated platform by the new book shelves. The ramp continued up the stairs at an angle that was not too steep for the heavy missiles. By Wednesday morning, only a few rows of back periodicals remained to be brought up from the lower level. With energy and flair, Al pushed dozens of loaded missiles up the ramp into the reading room.

While missiles waited for unloading in the south wing, Andrea Kraybill arranged back periodicals on the shelves.

By the late morning on Wednesday, only cleanup tasks remained. AMBS grad Leroy Bechler put on bookends. Sarah Farmwald of Goshen helped Al and Debbie stack dollies and missiles for loading in the truck.

Before the Hallett movers left, I showed them through the new library and the old lower books stacks where the books had been before the April 2006 move. They joined me for my first trip in the new elevator.

The AMBS Library staff is very grateful for the fine work done by the Hallett Movers at AMBS Library. Their efficiency, ingenuity, professionalism and humor made the job look easy. Thank you Debbie, Al and Blake for caring for our library collection and for the people of AMBS.

The Big Move

The big book move actually began Friday, July 20 when Debbie Musser from Hallett Movers and two assistants spent the day measuring and tagging the collection. After she measured the collection and counted the shelves, we agreed to fill six shelves in each section leaving the top shelf empty. With 25 inches of books on each 36-inch shelf, we would fill the entire north wing with the circulating book collection. The workers put a consecutively numbered sticker on each shelf. They then put the same consecutively numbered stickers on the books at 25 inch intervals. The collection was then ready for "the big move", matching the each book with a sticker on the destination shelf with the same numbered sticker.

On July 23rd, the Hallett Movers truck arrived with containers for the books (missiles), sheets of corrugated cardboard to divide layers of books, and dollies, four wheel carts on which to roll the dollies. Blue protective cardboard was taped on the doors, walls and service desk in the new building to protect from scratches. Nine temporary workers (AMBS students, alumni, and children of employees) loaded the missiles and rolled them into the new library for unloading. The morning shift worked from 7 a.m. to noon. The afternoon brought 7 more workers from 1 to 6 p.m. Blake Hallett, Debbie's nephew worked both shifts each day, setting the pace for the other workers.

By the end of the first day, the old reading room was almost emptied and those books were shelved in the north wing of the new library. By the end of the second day, the Conference Room and the Witmarsum Room were emptied. Books fill the north wing of the new library from west to east.

We expect to complete the job on Wednesday. Stay tuned.....