What Happened to the Library?

Pam MorganAlison Farrell

April 24, 2009

Do we need a new computer lab?

Two old computer labsHotSmallVisibility problems Isolated

New labLarge enough for MCCQEsVisually appealingState of the art Inviting

Plans for the old labsOne of the old labs to go to Medicine

Lab located in the library to be reabsorbed for more space for libraryArchives? Staff space? Reading room? Endless possibilities

Plans for the New Lab86 seat capacity

Lots of windows for natural light

Excellent for teaching

Available to students when not in use

State of the art equipment

Will go in the middle of the library to make it appealing, inviting and visible.

Planning the New LabMeetings with Architect:

No say in selection of architect– that was the Faculty of Medicine’s process

We didn’t take notes during meetings with ArchitectExpectations communicated clearly? Not sure. Things not included in plan that we had asked for.

Didn’t have a chance to sign off on final design/tender before it went public.

Making SpaceNeeded to free up the entire A-E journal section

Major Weed of Journal Collection to free spaceWeed all print journals reliably duplicated in

electronicWeed all old foreign language journals that are

rarely usedKeep all Canadian and NL titlesKeep all statistical titlesKeep major journals that provide historical context

of medicine (i.e. JAMA, NEJM, BMJ)

Making Space IIWhat is Reliably duplicated?

All content available, including the more peripheral content such as Book Reviews and Letters to the Editor

All Supplements includedAll images are clear and easy to viewBrowsing by volume and issue availableReliable publisher with commitment to archivingNot part of an aggregator database

Making Space IIIWithdrawing the titles

If Gaps in QEII collection identified, issues sent to them

List was circulated to other NL librariesPull titles from shelfRecycle

Removed the covers from the hard-bound itemsSlice volumes into ½ inch sectionsHad 16 recycling containers; emptied twice a week

Update Cataloguing Record and SERHOLD

Opportunity! Re-carpetingDecided to replace all 30+ year old carpet while

the library was undergoing renovations

Meant moving all our books and all our journals. Where to temporarily store them?

Planned to use the empty shelving where lab would eventually go while re-carpeting book area. This would not eliminate much study space.

DelaysCarpet delays

Meant the lab construction started before we got the carpet, so now where would we put the books during re-carpeting?

Put up stacks in the middle of the library – eliminating a lot of seating areas. It was summer, so we didn’t feel it would be much of a problem.

From seating to shelving

Math!Our existing book storage was not optimal.

Wanted to include more seating (within stacks and in the far east corner of library)

This meant measuring and calculations. (and a lot of squats)

Used formulas for figuring out how much space was needed for existing books and growth for next five years. (apparent, actual and comfort zone capacity)

Figured out how much shelving we needed in middle of library to temporarily store books.

Journal MoveDuring the book move, all the journals were

stored beside the area for the new lab.

Once the book re-carpeting was complete, we had to move all of our journals to re-carpet that area.

Journals moved to centre shelves, end of book stacks, and inside IRM. (this was confusing for patrons)

Still no study space and moving into the fall.

Disappearing SpaceFaculty of Medicine and HCCSJ in space crunch

New medicine building to be built for 2011

Library now had EMPTY space!!

Back half of journal area taken for Faculty Offices

How do we put the journals back in half the space?

Disappearing Space IIFaculty offered money and return of space once

building completed

Options:Compact Shelving

Permanancy once installed; not easily movedBuy Additional Backfiles

Had already purchased much to accommodate lab; limit to what else is available to purchase

Offsite StorageOlder materials are little usedQEII was already doing this for monographs

More Math!Same number of journals – half the space.

Looked at how many feet of journals could be moved to off site storage (pre-1985, pre-1990 or pre-1995?)

Looked at how much room was needed for growth.

After much measuring and calculating, it was decided to move all pre-1986 journals into off site storage

Offsite StorageCirc Staff boxing

materials for Offsite Storage

Label the Box & Ship to Storage Facility

Spreadsheet to record what titles/volumes/years in what box

Catalogue Record Updated

Get Those Shelves DownLab and re-carpeting finished

Exam time is coming AGAIN!!

Need back the central shelving for study spaceNoise factors – must be down at least two weeks

before exams begin

Student workers reshelving the titles to be kept in the new journal space

Offsite storage proceeding slower than anticipated

Get those shelves down NOW

Students pass Circ in clearing central shelves

Time Crunch; Need shelves down NOW

Decision to do additional weeds of materials left on central shelvesMonographic seriesOversizeAnother electronic backfile became available

Clear the remaining central shelves for offsite storage by piling on floor behind Circ

We’ll deal with it later…

Where are we now?Our new lab is open!

Students use it much more than our old lab.

And functional!

We love it for teaching

More study space!!Although we lost space, we have as much (soon

to be a bit more) study space than before the renovations. Incorporated into the middle of journal and book

stacks to minimize noiseSoon, we’ll have a nice quiet corner in the far east

cornerWe have the middle of our library back!

Off site Material For journals pre-1986, patrons can complete a

request form and the material can be obtained within two days

There have been more requests than we had anticipatedFirst week, a patron wanted an entire run of a

journal for a historical paper!

Historical, Oversize, Etc. Historical overflow (used to be beside journals)

is now at the end of the bookstacksWill be a weed of historical in the coming months

and all historical material will be housed in the Roberts room or incorporated into the bookstacks

Opportunity – weeded oversize material and shelved at the end of bookstacks. Catalogue records are still being updated

Monographic Series and Journal Backfiles in back room still to be dealt with

The old labPlans still up in the air

Currently – ½ used for staff space, ½ used for storage

Any questions?

Acknowledgements:Thank you to Linda Barnett for providing picturesThank you to Lindsay Glynn for providing

information on dealing with the ArchitectThank you to our students for being so patient

with our renovations!