Basement Reborn for Storage

If you have not been in the library recently, you will not recognize this picture. It was taken looking into the old basement from the double doors at the base of the old library steps. The view of the dark grey basement full of books is now a clean white hallway with good lighting in a bright ceiling. (The construction materials piled in the middle are now in storage.) These new walls now divide the lower level into two storage room, the east one for the library and the west one for general campus storage. At the far end of this hall, there is a double door on each side.

If you walk in the door on the right, you are in the east storage room looking down the wall where the biography and fiction used to be shelved. There are no shelves on the walls now. The ceiling tiles are gone and the old lights are suspended from the ceiling in an arrangement that actually gives better illumination than the room ever had before.

On Monday and Wednesday this week, a crew of volunteers headed by Dave Bertsche took down the gold shelving in the reading room and reconstructed it in this room, the east end of the former lower book stacks. Dave was assisted by Owen Hess, Lew Naylor and Bill Swartzentruber. On Wednesday afternoon, the crew helped Craig Neufeld load carts of back periodicals from the old lower stacks, roll them into the new building, down the elevator (We love the elevator!) and into this room. Lois Longenecker arranged the volumes on the shelves. The goal is to have the more frequently used back periodicals on the main floor and the lesser used volumes in the lower level. Library staff will retrieve volumes as needed. The remainder of this move will be completed early next week.

Thursday morning, the work crew brought two trailer loads of all the remaining gold shelving pieces from the barn where it has been in storage since about 1990. The just emptied reading room has now become a place to sort pieces of shelving, to decide what to keep, what to give away and what to send for metal recycling. On Saturday, some volunteers from the Butler Public Library near Fort Wayne will come to take the black shelving from the conference Room.

Bob Yoder from DJ Construction is putting finishing touches on door hardware in the new library. Frank is deconstructing the stairwell in the north hallway up to the Conference Room in order to install the new lift. They have moved their tool boxes into the northwest corner of the old library reading room. On the left you can see the railing from the top of the stairsto the Conference Room. It is in the foreground of the lower picture, the area where the Reference Collection was located just a couple days ago. What happened to all the wooden shelving? Read the next post to find out.

Shelving Completed (Mostly)

By the end of the day on Friday, June 29, most of the shelving was erected in the new library. We were still stymied by a few missing pieces. This photo from the center section shows the dark grey AMBS shelving on the east end of the north wing. Because there are two rows fewer than I had anticipated(!) and the bases are eight inches narrower than the layout showed, we ended up with a large open area in the middle of the north wing. This actually opens up the center of the north wing in a way that is quite nice, quite unexpected. In the future, two or three rows of shelving could be added here to increase the book capacity of the library. Sarah Leaman is in the foreground assembling more shelving. She stuck it out until 5 p.m. on Friday, June 29.

The west area of the north wing has light grey shelving, some from California and also old AMBS shelving. Because the bases are four inches narrower than we had planned, we have room for an additional row of shelving. We will add this row after the July book move using some donated shelving from Valparaiso University that just happens to be the right color. It currently is holding books in the reading room.

The California shelving is fully erected in the south wing. Back periodicals will be shelved here. The computer lab area will be on the left side of this space, to the north. The area in the back is for the audiovisual collection and microfilm viewing. The area in the foreground of this picture will have two rows of new periodical display shelving, a study table and two soft chairs. I took this picture from just inside the library entrance facing east.

The low shelving in the reference area also came from California where the 42" high frames were cut down and modified from standard 90" frames. The frames were less uniform than the standard units creating a challenge for the crew to get the rows straight and level. Matt Tschetter used washers to get the proper spacing between the frames and finally got the result we needed. These low shelves will have cherry end panels and a cherry shelf across the top. Having the reference books so low will be a bit awkward but the shelf on top will provide a convenient support for reading.

July 1 and 2, the summer crew finished cleaning all the shelving: vacuuming, dusting and damp wiping. When I returned from a long July 4 holiday, Cal Zehr worked with me to figure out how we could obtain all the missing pieces of shelving either from our dealer in California or by making do with AMBS pieces. We will be ready for the book move which is still scheduled for July 23-27.

For the last two week summer session, July 9-20, the library will remain in its temporary locations. I will finish preparing the back periodical section for the move by selecting lesser used and older volumes for closed storage in the library basement. Sharon Baker, volunteer coordinator, is scheduling volunteers for the three weeks after the move, July 30-August 17. They will deconstruct shelving and erect it in the library basement. Less strenuous tasks include checking call number order in the books that were moved and inserting magnetic strips in books in preparation for the library materials security system.

The project is on track and the new building is looking more and more like a library. Thanks to all volunteers and employees who contributed to setting up the shelving.

Shelving Goes Up!

By the end of the day, Tuesday, June 26, about half of the shelving was up in the new AMBS Library. It took some time on Monday to get started. The pallets of old AMBS shelving had to be brought from the the storage container out by the Lambright Center with the tractor forklift. The AMBS summer crew brought up posts from the basement that had been cleaned and sorted last winter by volunteers.

The old AMBS shelving is in about three different styles and colors. Finding the right pieces to make ten section rows all the same style and color was the first challenge. By Tuesday morning, volunteer Virgil Claassen was leading a crew putting up AMBS shelving in the north east wing of the library and this area was completed by the end of the day. He was assisted by volunteers Dave Bertsche and Al Longenecker and by AMBS student, Craig Neufeld. Recent graduates Audrey Ratzlaff and Sara Leaman have become expert shelf assemblers.

A shipment of used shelving had arrived from California a week earlier. Hallett Mover Al Partin had frames of this shelving laid out in the south wing by early Monday. However, it wasn't until Tuesday morning that Al found the essential support brackets for erecting this shelving. By the end of the day on Tuesday, eight rows were erected for the audiovisual collection and back periodicals. Al was assisted by volunteer Bill Swartzentruber and student Pauline Thompson.
Joe Smith and the AMBS summer crew have provided critical support with shelves and cleaning.

We expect to complete most of the shelving by Friday, right on schedule.

Sample Table and Shelving

On Thursday, June 21, Gary Clarin of Meilahn Manufacturing brought a sample of the custom tables that are being built for the library. The table has a cherry base with black detailing to coordinate with the library panelling. The work surface is linoleum, sturdy and attractive for writing. Sarah Piller, interior designer of the Troyer Group is examining the table with Gary.

June 19 a truckload of used shelving arrived from California and was moved into the reference area of the new library. Later in the week the summer crew brought up from the basement the support posts that have been stored down there since spring 2006. The posts were cleaned and supported this spring by our SOOP volunteers.

A major change will happen in the new library June 25-27 as all the shelving will be erected by under the supervision of Al Partin of Hallett Library Movers. The work crew includes AMBS students, friends and volunteers.