We have reached a major milestone of the project this week--Ivy Stacks has been emptied of all the boxes and other materials and the current shelving is ready to be removed. We have 'decanted' Ivy! Some of the unique and fragile materials were placed in the closed stacks in Alderman Library. Alderman is also holding Ivy boxes needed for the Google Book Project. Other items identified by our preservation experts as particularly sensitive to environmental conditions, such as LPs and microforms, were transferred to the Records Center of the Library of Virginia, a state of the art records management facility located outside of Richmond, VA. The bulk of the 600,00+ books and bound journals housed in over 36,000 boxes were moved to a secure, temperature controlled warehouse in Orange, VA.
There are new photos posted so check them out. The photographs at the Orange facility don't really do the scene justice. There is a sea of stretched wrapped boxes covering about 18,000 square feet of space and it is impressive. Next up on the agenda is tearing down the current shelving and contracting for the new infrastructure within Ivy Stacks. We'll be posting video of the demolition when it gets underway within the next week or so. As an FYI, all the old shelving will be sold or recycled by the contractor, Hilldrup Moving and Storage.
