ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 / 499 C o l l e g e & R e s e a r c h L i b r a r i e s Do’s and don’ts for moving a small academic library Fourteen helpful tips by Joanna M .B u rk h a rd t L ibrary literature offers w id e-sp ectru m coverage on planning and moving librar­ ies. Authors offer visions of what might be, practical implementation suggestions, and/or explicit instructions for specific situations. Ev­ ery move is different and offers its own set of challenges. Planning and moving into a new library can be a nightmare with long-range ramifications, or a sweet dream of perfect co­ ordination and timing. The University o f Rhode Island (URI) College of Continuing Edu­ cation, including the library for that cam pus, moved into a new build­ ing in Ja n u a r y 1996. The small academic library has four full-time s ta ff m e m b e rs and about 50,000 volumes support­ It's im p o rta n t to visit the neing th e w id ely very early construction phas varied curriculum o f the college and the research needs of sev­ eral other university or state departments, an alternative high school, and a day care center. We eventually ended up with a beautiful and functional space. However, retaining our long-range goals and moving the library from the old building to the new building was not an easy task. It required an enormous amount of planning, measuring, researching, discuss­ ing, and muscle. There were a number of things that could have gone better if I “had only known.” Many things went right simply because I did some reading, talked to library professionals with moving experience, fol­ lowed my intuition and training, and insisted on having my own way. For the sanity and well-being o f oth­ ers who may be facing a move, I have com piled a list o f suggested do’s and don’ts to add to the litera­ ture already avail­ able. 1. Make y o u r o w n p la n f o r the new facility. Think about the services you want to offer both now site fre q u e n tly during the and in the future. . Submit your plan to the architect, space planner, or project man­ ager. Often space is designed for visual impact rather than practical use. Without the guid­ ance of a library professional, an architect can­ not be expected to understand why sight lines w e About the author Joanna M. Burkhardt is head librarian o f the University o f Rhode Island-Providence Center College o f Continuing Education Library; e-mail: BURK 101@uriacc.uri.edu 500 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 Author, Joanna Burkhardt, at the circulation des is draped w ith fabric to keep it fro m g e ttin g scr from the circulation desk to the microfilm machines might be important, or why leaving an open doorway into work areas might be a problem. The specific needs of your library should be discussed with those in charge o f the layout so that practical concerns can be considered. Submit your own plan, even if you are not invited to do so. Any reputable architect will at least ponder the differences betw een your plans and their own. A 30- minute discussion in the planning stages can save every o n e time and money. Our architects, Presbrey and Torrado in Providence, Rhode Island, assigned the de­ sign o f the library to an architect who was willing to work with me, and who respected my role as the professional who knew the most about how work flows through the li­ brary. They followed my plan closely and lis­ tened to what I had to say. The cooperation between us resulted in an efficient workspace that is also a delight to look at. 2. Allow y o u r staff to be p a rt o f th e planning p ro cess. Ask what they need or want to see as top priorities. People are interested in their workspaces. Those on the front lines know how the cur­ rent arrangement could be made better. I drew up the initial plans for the library and amended them several times, asking my staff for input at each revision. Their responses gave me valu­ able information about what they wanted and needed in a new work environment. The top priorities they listed gave me guide­ lines about what to emphasize to the archi­ tect. For example, a top priority for my staff was a space where they could work on as­ signments undisturbed. When the architect tried to talk me out of the private of­ fices, I knew what my staff wanted. Cooperation can be expected from staff m em bers w hose wishes have been considered. 3 . M ake y o u r o w n p la n f o r co m p u ters and w h at th ey will a c­ cess. Find out how much connectiv­ ity you need and where to put it. Meet with the computer experts, electri­ cians, and/or architects to discuss the present and future needs for your li­ brary. D on’t assume they know what your specialized needs are. k, which Talk to the people who can trans­ atched. late library services into electricity, outlets, modular plugs, data lines, surge pro­ tectors, and other related paraphernalia. Com­ bining professional knowledge in libraries and computers, will optimize the eventual outcome and possibly avoid expensive changes later on. 4. Visit th e new site frequently w hile it is u n d e r c o n s tr u c tio n . In co n stru ctio n projects, things happen very quickly. One day it’s all I-beams and concrete, the next day the walls are in place. Adjustments frequently have to be made to accommodate changes and un­ foreseen circumstances. Economies may be needed, which will affect your space. It may be that you will have fewer electrical outlets or that a quiet study room has to be elimi­ nated. If too much time goes by between vis­ its to the new site, economies may be achieved without your knowledge or approval. In our case, the building was 70 percent complete before we knew we would be mov­ ing into it. We also had limited access to the building. It was difficult to find time to make regular visits to the new site, and it was easy to assume that everything was going along as planned. We made irregular and infrequent attempts to spend time at the new site. This benign neglect did not result in disaster, but some difficulties could have been avoided with more regular attention. 5. Plan the m ove fo r the season m ost likely to provide good w eath er and avoid w eath er-related illness. Many factors have to be considered when scheduling a move. Higher powers may prevail when setting the moving schedule. Your timetable may or may not be given priority. However, if given the opportunity, opt for a dry season with moder­ ate temperatures. Plan for a time when you C&RL News ■ July/A ugust 1998 / 501 have a maximum work crew available, and when the traffic between the old site and the new site is the lightest. Our move was scheduled for the week of January 2, 1996. Snow crippled the city with three major storms during the first two weeks of the new year. Inclement weather made the difficult downtown traffic even worse. The weather was also hard on our materials, which had only minimal protective covering during the trip from the street to the library. Student workers had gone home for the holidays and the remaining library staff were stricken with the flu during the post-holiday week. The move crept along at a snail’s pace. 6. S tart p a ck in g e a r l y . T h in k ab o u t packing e arlier th an that. Do as much sott­ ing, weeding, and discarding as possible b e­ fore you move. D on’t move anything you plan to throw away when you get there. C lo s e y o u r ey es and try to imagine packing up all your b e ­ lo n g in g s, tra n s­ p o rtin g th e m a c ro s s th e city, and putting them down in a new place over a ten- day period. What would you move first? W hat w ill you need on hand until the very last minute? What will Lucinda Ugorji staffs t be the first thing you need at the new site? What will you need in the middle? What is the best way to pack things so that you only have to handle them once at the other end? It’s good to have thought about this. It’s better to have written it down. I began thinking about packing long be­ fore December. I went over my basic plan with my staff to get their input and to look for flaws. I tried loading a few book trucks. I mea­ sured the collection. Office files and supplies were packed early in the process. We weeded files and packed as much as possible during the fall semester. Slowly the pile o f boxes grew with the pile of paper to be discarded. Old forms, stationery, and invoices disappeared into the dumpster. Every piece of equipment was examined. If it was not in working order and had not been used during the last year, it was left behind. In som e cases it was a good thing that old things cam e to the new site. We discov­ ered that clocks and w astebaskets for the entire building were on a pending purchase order. If we had not brought our old clock and our wastebaskets, we would have had to do without either for months. On the other hand, all kinds o f crazy things were sent to the basem ent storage area where they will molder forevermore. 7. Allow a flexible tim e fram e and p ro ­ vide su fficien t funds fo r th e m a te ria ls needed for m oving. Schedule the move, in­ cluding plenty o f room for delays. Pack the collection in boxes and transport it all at the same time or in as few trips as possible. Do your packing with efficient unpacking in mind. The library was the last unit o f the college to move. We had to be operational at the old site un­ til D ecem ber 22. W ith o n ly tw o w e e k s b e tw e e n s e m e s t e r ’s end an d th e m o v e , packing was hur­ ried. Most o f our moving supplies w e re a c q u ir e d through in n ov a­ tive scav en gin g, b o rro w in g , and e new circulation desk. retrieving b o x e s from the new site as they were emptied by other units. The move took more than twice as long as the time al­ lotted. We moved the monographic collections on fully loaded book trucks, which were wheeled onto a large moving van, driven to the new location, wheeled off the moving van, and rolled into the library. The book trucks were unloaded directly onto the shelves, then sent back to the old location for reloading. In theory this schem e should have worked. However, in reality, fully loaded book trucks do not move well in snow and ice, nor do they easily roll up and down the loading tailgates o f the moving trucks. The wheels of fully loaded three-shelf book trucks buckle under the weight o f the books. The b ook h 502 / C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 trucks were dented and otherwise damaged in the rigors of moving through the snow and ice on the uneven city streets. The book trucks on the vans were not loaded or unloaded in any order. Unloading the moving van took from 20 minutes to one hour. Time was wasted waiting for Book Truck #1 to get to the library so that shelving could begin. The book trucks could not be sent back to the old library for another load until their contents were off loaded onto the shelves. We were able to pack and move the last half o f the journal collection in boxes, which proved to be our salvation. This part of the collection was moved in one trip and did not have to be unpacked until it fit into our time­ table. Had we been able to box the entire collection, we could have moved everything in the time available and could then have con­ centrated the attention of the entire staff on unpacking. This would have resulted in greater efficiency in the move and vastly improved results in the shelving process in the new li­ brary. 8. Hire movers with library experience. Hire literate movers who speak the same lan­ guage you do. Train your movers in the basics of library organization. Have a “moving drill.” This is not a jab at multiculturalism. Com­ munication is closely linked to efficiency and accuracy in moving. If you hire movers who cannot understand your instructions or can­ not read the labels on the boxes, the move becom es much more complicated. Our m overs w ere Prison Industries o f Rhode Island. Prisoners from Rhode Island’s Adult Correctional Institution who were slated for release in the near future worked in teams with supervision by prison guards. Many of these folks had never been in a library. Some did not speak English as a first language. Sev­ eral did not speak English at all. They are to be commended for being flexible, courteous, pleasant, and for getting the job accomplished. The language/literacy barrier made giving directions difficult and the L.C. Classification System further complicated the situation. A basic training session and a “dry run” would have been extremely helpful. A basic under­ standing of how the collection is organized and why it is important to keep it in order would have been useful, as well. 9. Limit the n um ber o f different c o m ­ panies and co n tra cto rs involved in v ari­ ous installations. Schedule contractors for firm dates in the order they will be needed. Schedule delivery o f equipment and furnish­ ings— stagger their arrival. Be on hand when the contractors assemble and place shelving and furniture. As opening day approached, we still had huge bundles of wires lying on the floor where the computers were supposed to be. Furni­ ture could not be installed until the wiring was finished. The contractors could not agree on who had to do what with the wires. Where did Company A’s responsibility end and Com­ pany B ’s responsibility start? Our security sys­ tem took months to install because there was no one to cut a hole in the circulation desk. The library stacks went up the w eek b e ­ fore we moved without supervision by the library staff. The shelves were fully loaded when the building inspectors arrived and sug­ gested that there might be a problem with the width o f the aisles for em ergency exit routes. Supervision o f all library installations by a library staff m em ber would have been a good idea. During a move it is very important to sched­ ule deliveries and use of the loading dock so progress does not com e to a standstill. Our library move was delayed because the trucks simply could not get to the loading dock. There was no prioritization o f need, and there was no plan in place when several semis arrived at the same time. The bad weather added nothing helpful to the mix. 10. Measure and m ark out the areas for collections ahead o f time. A good deal of time was spent measuring the collection and marking out how and where it would fit on the new shelving. This time was well spent. Preplanning gave some concrete view of how much room I had to work with, how much I could leave for growth, where the various parts of the collection could be housed, and how to fit equipment and furniture around the collection. 11. Give com m unication a high priority. Make sure the people at the old site can commu­ nicate with the people at the new site. Maintain the phone, e-mail, and fax at the old site until the move has been completed. Hook up the same at the new location as soon as possible. Dozens o f questions need answers, mes­ sages need to be relayed, people need sup­ plies, and so on. We needed to stay in touch to keep things running smoothly. Fortunately, our phone connection continued until the move was completed. However, it took a week to find out what our new fax number was. It was also several weeks before our e-mail connection was back in service. The computers joined the library network in March. It was April before the tele­ phones all worked properly and were located in appropriate spots. Preplanning and on-site supervision at the time of installation could have decreased these delays. 12. Make a pun ch list o f items that need the c o n tra c to r’s attention. In teract w ith the p roject m anager. During the actual con­ struction process, details, repairs, and correc­ tions are deferred until another time. To re­ mind the contractor of what still needs to be accomplished, you must compile and submit a punch list to the project manager. Walk aro u n d you r li­ b rary . L ook up and down, over and under, being as detailed as pos­ sible in describing what needs to be accomplished. I p r io r it iz e d my list, putting th e ite m s th a t m ost d rastically a ffe c te d o p e r a ­ tions at the top. The top priorities all received atten­ The newly co tion, if not a per­ manent fix, before the end o f our first se ­ mester in residence. In a large construction project it is im­ perative that som eone oversee the job to keep the contractors on schedule and to keep the work moving. It is important to have som eone to manage and report prob­ lems and to negotiate changes in the job specs. Let this person know what problems you encounter, what changes are necessary, what priorities you have. This person can arrange for the problem to be fixed. The old adage about the squeaky wheel applies here. Be creative in how you squeak. 13. D ocum ent y o u r m ove. Share y o u r exp erien ces w ith oth ers. One of the things that I did, which was actually fun, was to videotape the old library as it looked while m we w ere w orking there, w hile we w ere packing, and while we were leaving. I also videotaped the new library as it emerged from the rubble, took shape, filled up, and got organized. I took still pictures as well, from hard hat days to the finished product in the new library. I have written the pro­ cess o f planning, revising, moving, and set­ tling in for my own benefit, and I have tried to share some sense of how it all happened with interested parties. The pictures and the story are now part o f the history of the URI Libraries. 14. Blow y o u r ow n h o rn . Say th an k you. Celebrate. Celebrate your victory. The chance to say “good jo b ” and “we did it” is not something that should be passed up. Many people worked very hard to make our move happen. Saying thank you is a small thing, but it can mean a great deal to those on the receiving end. Stress is a ma­ jo r f a c to r in c h a n g e o f any kind. At the end o f the m ove, it was important to lower the level of stress. Som e o f this was accom ­ plished by short­ ening the work pleted library. day to n o rm a l hours and getting into the routine o f the semester. The rest was accomplished through the mental exercise of reaching closure on this phase in our transi­ tion and in making the new library feel like home. Goals and everyday tasks have put us back into a normal work routine. Many things can go wrong when plan­ ning and moving into a new library. The time spent in preparation for a m ove is closely related to its success or failure, but no amount o f planning can guarantee a per­ fect move. It is possible to avoid som e of the pitfalls by using the exp erien ce o f oth­ ers in com bination with strategic planning, com m unication, and on-site presence. It is hoped this list o f d o ’s and d on ’ts may be o f som e assistance for those contem plating the planning/building/moving process. C&RL News ■ July/August 1998 / 503