Leyburn Library Renovation Blog

Some of this week's changes are not readily visible because they involved wiring, but we knew they were going on ... we could hear the hammering and drilling! More visible changes are the LACK of panels separating the offices on Main level, it's now wide open spaces! These panels are being moved to lower level 1 to create temporary offices for staff for the duration of the renovation.

This morning University Librarian Merrily Taylor held the last staff meeting in her current office. These meetings are held every other week and by the next one, she will have relocated downstairs.

It hasn't been ALL confusion and mayhem. Yesterday library staff and summer workers wore our color coordinated t-shirts to help lighten the mood!

The HelpDesk has moved its operations to Northen Auditorium for the duration of the renovation.

Of course, it is just when you are busiest that you have the least time to document what you are doing. And that is just what has happened over the past week or two. To give some idea, here is part of an e-mail Karin sent out last week:

Thursday 8/14
Merrily and Karin move to Boatwright
PCs installed in Boatwright
Furniture installed in Technical Services

Friday 8/22
Surplus Sale here

And that's just the Big Picture, without all the little niggling details.

Such as converting the University Librarian's previously-stately office

into Carol's Furniture Liquidators

The University Librarian has relocated to new quarters in the Boatright Room, where she sitteth at the right hand, acting as a sort of sibyl, translating the cryptic emanations from Old George.

Elsewhere on the Main Floor, the former Reference area has become something of a forbidden zone:

Regarding the move of Technical Services from the Main Floor to Lower Level 1...
Before excavating, a group of archaeologists was summoned to try to identify an exhumed object. What had primitive peoples used this for?

Shortly after solving that mystery (evidently an archaic sock-drawer, perhaps used by General Lee), the Main Floor Tech Services area quickly became something of a ghost town.



The entrance to the new Tech Services area was guarded, at least until this afternoon, by two fierce creatures who would allow only Authorized Somebodies to enter. Sort of like when Disneyworld first opened.

There were sightings of mysterious objects, which disappeared into the new and forbidden space:

What could be happening?
Rumor has it that we may be allowed to enter this new space later today. Stay tuned...

August 18 was the big day for Leyburn Library's Technical Services staff. Your friends in Acquisitions, Cataloging, Serials, and Binding now reside in a brand spanking new office on LL1 near the elevators. This is the permanent home of the Technical Services Dept. (not to be confused with the temporary "swing-space" renovation moves most of the rest of the Leyburn Library staff have made). Considering that Technical Services had occupied a good portion of the main level since the Library was built in 1979, this was quite a move. We love our new space! We've officially crossed that bridge to the 21st Century!

So how did our move go yesterday? Actually it was all a bit of blur. At 8:30 we went on the final walk-through of our new space with Carole Bailey. Around 9:00 the festivities began in earnest. During the next couple of hours our staff moved their personal stuff to their new cubicles. Meanwhile the moving crew was hauling the heavy stuff down to the new office under the watchful eye of Jennifer Wise, while Ben Hartless and his ITS summer crew set up our computers and printers. Dana Camper and Tom Tinsley made sure data and communications were working for us. By the end of the morning several of our staff were already settled in. Some of us still have some unpacking to do, though. Here on the morning after, it's fair to say that we're all seriously relieved that our big move is finally over.

So ... Here's an invitation to all you readers of this blog. Come check out the most excellent new Technical Services office on LL1, if you haven't already. In the meantime here are some pictures from the move.

The movers, electricians at work

A view of the new office

Carol, Laura H., and Wanda moving in

Still getting settled in

The Tech Services crew the morning after