Living in the Chaos Zone

Hello good readers, and welcome to a brief blog entry.

Two weeks ago, we were told that work on the community centre envelope would be starting again shortly.  Due to the work required on the exterior wall of the library, we were asked to move everything at least five feet away from those walls.

We spent the next three days (Thursday, Mar. 31 -- Saturday, Apr. 2) moving books, shelves, and furniture with a great deal of help and sweat from the community centre staff.  Due to space constraints, the library's large tables and most of its seating have been placed in storage.

Shortly after we were warned about the pending construction, the silence we've enjoyed over the past few months was shattered as the contractors continued their work.

On Saturday morning while I was shifting books on the shelves, there were a series of loud thumps on the roof which caused one of our fluorescent light covers near me to fall and shatter.  The community centre staff responded, and they've since removed all the light covers so that incident will not be repeated.

In spite of everything, we *are* open for business.  If you visit us at the library, you will likely find it noisy and cramped, but we are open.  Our hours will not change over the next few months, and the library will not (barring any unforeseen dangers associated with the renovation work) close while construction is ongoing.

Before I wrap up this blog post, let's make a deal folks.  If you don't complain to me about the noise and cramped conditions (which are thoroughly beyond my control), I won't rant at you about how I have to work full time under these conditions.

...Wanna shake on it?

Of Revelations and Reference Rooms...

Over the next few weeks, you'll notice some changes to the reference section.  Tomorrow we'll be removing one of the shelves in that area, and another will hopefully follow in the next week or so.  They'll be going into what will become the library's reference room.

A few weeks after I became interim head librarian, I installed myself (and a computer to work on) in the library's back room which was the library's office many years ago.  The library staff have since worked to clean up and rearrange the back room so that the library's bookkeeper can take up residence there again as well.  These changes will free up the library's office to become a reference room.

In the short term, the reference room will house the library's reference collection and a few small tables and chairs for patron use.  In the long term, I hope to move the archives into the reference room as well which will free up more space in the library's main area.

The creation of a reference room should have a few major benefits to the library as a whole:

1)  It'll give us more shelf space for our adult non-fiction collection

• We're using emptied shelves from the library's back room as part of the shelving in the reference room, which should leave us with one large shelf to expand ANF into.

2)  It'll open up the library somewhat

• The left side of the reference U will be gone, which should make the front of the library feel more open.
• If we are able to move the archives into the reference room as well, rotating the first set of shelves in the paperback section will give us a small open reading area and light from the end windows will be able to reach the rest of the library.

3)  It'll give us a quiet space

• At times (especially during storytime or Wednesday Club), the library can be fairly noisy.  This reference room will give the library a quiet reading and study area.

Please have patience with us while we're making this change.  We'll try to make it as painless as possible, and the end result should be well worth it.