Library Collections

From the Top Floor to the Bottom – Benefits of Shifting

by edlener, posted on April 17, 2015

The past two years have involved extensive shifting of our physical collections. In fact, with the removal this week of the last of the regular stacks from second floor, every volume in the circulating collection has now moved! In the process we were able to substantially reduce the physical footprint of the collection. Much of this was done through acquiring digital archives of key journal and book collections along with the move of some low-use material offsite. Lots of people deserve credit for the hard work involved in this effort – from identifying titles, to acquiring or digitizing content, to physically moving and processing the materials.

All this new space has many benefits, both now and in the future. The fifth floor is still very stack intensive, which suits its purpose as a quiet floor. On fourth floor we opened up prime space for student study areas as well as several new offices. On third floor there is a now a spacious area directly below the graduate study room for a possible faculty lounge or for other uses. Changes on the second floor are the most dramatic, with the old wing of the building now open in addition to the new wing we had cleared previously. This again frees up space for students as well as partner groups with which the library is working. Finally moves on the first floor created space for the SCALE-UP Classroom and the new ICAT labs.