- Shift home
- Overview
- Planning Team
- Measuring Collections
- Distribute Growth Space
- Calculations
- Paper Shift
- Communication
- If the Library is Open
- Planning Shift Routes
- Supplies
- Timeline
- Test Run a Shift
- Training
- Monitoring the Shift
- Make Endcards
- Move Ranges
- Revise Public Information
- Provide Closure
- Miscellaneous
- Glossary
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Planning a major shift of a library collection is not as complex as it is
tedious. Careful measurement and excruciating attention to detail will
almost always guarantee success. If your shift is large (lots of books, or
lots of moving parts), I recommend that your plans be very thoroughly
documented, widely shared, and each step of your plan be followed
precisely. Smaller shifts can ooze from one step to another, combine
steps, etc., because there are fewer things to forget.
The following pages outline the steps UO Library staff took when planning
the shift of our collections. They worked for us; they may not work as
well for you. One of the most important parts of shift planning and
implementation is to remember that mistakes happen. When they do, it is
time to sit back and figure out what you forgot, what factor didn't get
included in the plans, or whether it was just human error. Regardless of
the cause, it's a chance to put the project on pause for a moment, bolster
up the ones who made the mistake, figure out how to fix it, and then move
on.
Your shifts may vary a lot from ours, but we hope that by sharing our
experiences we may help you with yours.
The basic steps of a shift are:
- get an overview of the current and proposed configurations, and of
the Lib. Administration's goals/plans for the shift
- set up the planning team, begin the To Do list (the master plan)
- measure current collection and count current shelves
- count the number of new shelves being added to the collection and
decide if growth space is to bedistributed evenly throughout collection
- calculate fill rate of shelves
- do a paper shift to see if it really works. Determine the maximum
number of simultaneous shifts you want (based on # shifters, # booktrucks,
amount of time to complete shift)
- Give Library Administration an overview of the phases of the
shift, etc., and be sure you're aiming in the direction they want and then
tell library staff what's up
- if library will be open during shift, set plans and publicity
- make maps of shift areas and paths between them, if you find it
necessary.
- prepare shifting supplies
- make a timeline
- test-run a shift: calculate travel time/shift time (sections/hour)
- train shifters
- monitor each shift, fix mistakes, remeasure, and readjust your
growth space based on your new measurements.
- make end cards for ranges
- move ranges, if necessary
- revise public information: maps, information screens, pamphlets,
range markers, etc.
- provide closure for the shift participants.
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