Shelved

Murphy’s Law has struck again.  Due to a collection of circumstances beyond our control, the completion of the building renovation process has been delayed.  The issues are not major, but do impact when we can take occupancy.  Because of this, our closing dates have now shifted.

We will now close the Mini B. at 5:00 pm on Friday September 2, 2016, celebrate Labor Day and then get to work. 

Our grand re-opening is now rescheduled for Tuesday November 1, 2016, normal hours 10 am - 8 pm.  Much like going back to the future to the Mini B., there is a certain symmetry to returning to the Library in November.  November will be 31 years from when the Library moved from the Mini B. location to the building initially.

This week in the building our shelving old and new went up. 

It’s funny how it looks like miles of shelves with the shelves empty.  I’m sure this is why Library Land always deals in “Shelf Feet.”   We take each collection (fiction, non-fiction, picture books, large print, etc.) and a ruler.  Then we count how many books are in 1 linear shelf foot.  We do this at least 5 times in 5 different locations within the same collection and average the numbers.  This becomes the basis for our collection’s space need.  We can then take the total number of books we have in the collection and divide that number by the average number of books in 1 shelf foot.  This provides us with the number of linear shelf feet we need to house those books.  Optional is to add a certain percentage for growth or, a little easier, before doing the division subtract 2 – 4 from the number of books in 1 shelf foot to account for 2 to 4 books room for growth or change, or if you are nervous that you might have really, really fat books in places! 

After doing this initial math*, and knowing the total shelf feet needed, we can then divide this number by the length of shelves and know how many shelves are needed.  This can be carried out to how many stacks, etc.

We’ve run these numbers a lot.  So we know the before and after pictures are going to be striking.  Before we know it, we’ll be posting those pictures here!

 Thank you all for your patience our busiest times are still ahead.

SCE

(*To all the kids who say – I’m not going to be a mathematician.  Who would ever need to know this in real life?  I bet you would have never have imagined this much math in a library!)