Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Visit to Orange, VA

The bulk of our boxes from Ivy are being placed in temporary storage at a facility in Orange, VA.  We started sending them out there last week beginning September 20, 2010.  The boxes are placed 36 to a pallet then secured in stretch wrap.  30 pallets fit into a tractor trailer (you can't place a pallet of books on top of another pallet--the weight is too much on the lower boxes) and we have sent 14 loads as of this morning.  So, we have a lot of boxes in Orange.

I was very pleased with the situation at the warehouse.  It has been raining in Central Virginia for the past couple of days but I saw not one hint of water on the floor much less leaking from the ceiling. The owners of the building have invested in significant upgrades to the HVAC and security of the area housing our materials and they looked well cared for and well organized.  The owner and workers at the facility understand the nature of their charge--over 600,000 items that are important to the research and teaching at the University of Virginia--and they take it seriously.  They are committed to the safety and wellness of our books, bound journals, documents, and other valued materials.

We should have all the boxes out of Ivy in mid to late October.  We'll post some pictures soon.  So far, so good!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

We're off

We have moved the Papers of the Low Moor Iron Company and all the bound volumes of the Charlottesville Daily Progress to the Ivy Annex in Alderman Library, and the first truck load of materials has left the building, heading to the Records Center.

Welcome!

Welcome to the web site for information, news, photos and more regarding the Ivy Stacks Retrofit project.  My name is Paul Rittelmeyer and I will be your humble reporter during the time the University of Virginia Libraries off site shelving facility is completely renovated.  Along with my colleague Renee Reighart we will be updating this site with news and images of the facility as it transforms from a simple and serviceable warehouse  into a state of the art 21st century library shelving facility.


A few words about the project:

This is a project of the entire University of Virginia and involves not only Library staff from all the libraries but also folks from Facilities Management (including architects, engineers, and all manner of really smart and experienced construction managers), the departments of Procurement, Real Estate, and Legal Council as well as representatives from the Provost's Office and myriad other University experts that are being consulted as needed.   The project manager is Taryn Harrison from Facilities Management.  Lori Ponton in Procurement Services is managing the multiple contracts that have been, and will be, awarded over the life of the project.


A few words about this site:

The design and hard work of beginning a new web site is being done by the very capable and awesome Renee Reighart.  She works in Alderman Library in the Department of Interlibrary Services.  Renee will be doing most of the work in the Photos and Videos pages.  We have started with showing what Ivy Stacks looks like before the project began.  We will be posting images during all phases of the project.  (I can’t wait to see how they install railroad lines into the concrete floor and then pour 10,000 square feet of concrete to make them flush to the floor.  We will definitely be documenting that part.)   While we have tried to offer information in different formats and styles, feel free to contact Renee with any suggestions or comments regarding the site. 

As the Director of Interlibrary Services, and therefore the manager of Ivy Stacks and a part of this project’s management team, I will be adding content to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page, the News page and updating the Timeline as needed.  For a lot of background on Ivy Stacks including its history and some details of this project go to the FAQ page.  The Timeline page will have the actual timeline as graphically displayed using some pretty neat software that UVa’s Facilities Management folks use in all their construction projects.  And the News page will feature updates on how the project is going.  As momentum develops I will update this page frequently.