It has been a while since my last post but most of what has been going on with the project has been behind the scenes or is a continuation of what we have been doing. The concrete was poured and we spent a couple of weeks watching it dry. Well, I didn't actually sit there and watch, I did other stuff instead, but that was about as dramatic as it got on the construction side of things. After the crew could move around in the facility work continued on the installation of the duct work for the HVAC system. The sprinkler system is being installed right now. The big day will be when Spacesaver comes in to install the shelving. That is scheduled for April 26th. Renee and I will be there to get some photos.
In the meantime we have begun to increase our production of pre-processing materials. That work is going well at the Linden Ave. facility and we will soon inherit some space in our main library--Alderman Library--so we can expand our operation.
I have been spending some time helping out with the bar coding and sorting by size and I admit I am enjoying working with the materials. I have come across some amazing illustrated children's books from the 19th Century as well as journals from 1930s Nazi Germany (pretty scary stuff and I can't read what it says), sermons from some passionate preachers of years past, and books by authors I have never heard of but who were quite prolific in their day. I must resist the impulse to examine everything that looks interesting because we have to get this stuff through the pipeline, but still, a few moments with a volume of Popular Science is like spending time with an old friend.
