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Moving
by Mary Clark
We did it! We managed to move
ourselves, our collections, and our patrons to the Library of Virginia's
new building, safely and, so far, without hospitalizations for exhaustion
or mental derangement. If you love meetings, you will enjoy moving. There
were equipment meetings, stacks-layout meetings, telephone-installation
meetings, computer-resources meetings, box-folding-instruction meetings,
and general-move-information meetings, all of which spawned more meetings.
If you love special projects, you will enjoy moving. Our single biggest
project was creating the new "Main Collection" for the new Library's enlarged
reading rooms. We selected about 40,000 volumes from the closed stacks
area for that collection. The biggest challenge that I personally faced
during the move was coordinating and designing the collection and services
to be provided by the State and Federal Documents Room. For the first time,
The Library of Virginia would have a public service point devoted to government
information. Happily, the State and Federal Documents Room is even more
successful than I dared to imagine. I am also happy we have the opportunity
to spread the word about the State Documents Depository Program we administer
and the Federal Documents Depository Program in which we participate. Moving
is a continuing process, not just an event. We will continue to evaluate
our decisions for years to come. As the excitement and pressures of deadlines
and decisions with far-reaching consequences come to a close, we remember
why we moved-to provide better service and access to our patrons and to
protect our heritage, the collections of The Library of Virginia. |