• Rent some drinking fountains (glass jars upside down) and place them on each floor. Shifting is hot nasty work.
• Get some boom boxes and play music. At first we thought we probably couldn't ever find music that wouldn't bug somebody, but we eventually just put boomboxes out and let teams do what they wanted. Of course, this was during the shift when we actually closed the library to patron browsing. During the shifts we were open, we had to be far more quiet, of course.

Growth space: some staff think we should have gone ahead with our original idea of allotting growth space appropriate to the growth rate of each call number range (that is, leave more growth space in call number areas that grow faster). That would have made post-shift shelving much easier and staff wouldn't have to be doing as many minor shifts through the years immediately following the collection move. I have mixed feelings: the larger and more complex a shift is, the more moving parts it has (the more start points, the larger the number of staff doing the shift, etc.) the more difficult it is to monitor that it's done right. Maybe we could have done that if we'd had more people or been more creative: a special team could have placed the bookends at the right place immediately before the ranges were to be filled, for example.

If you have any choice at all, put your computer room in new space so you have maximum space design flexibility and don't have to move it more than once.

Don't stop smoking shortly before a large move.

"Speaking from my experience with the Documents department collections, my advice would be directed to the size of a shift where contractors, perhaps non-library personnel are erecting shelving. I was so glad that my rather tiresome picky qualities drove me to oversee very carefully the erection of the new Documents shelving so that the shelves were properly spaced, the right height in the right place, etc. If I had not we would have had some very sad shelving areas to contend with at the last minute. When library folk were involved in the erection of the shelves, this didn't happen."

"Secondly, I decided that one CANNOT be too careful in giving instructions on the differences between a forward/backward and a backward/forward shift (even to library folk). People will nod and say they understand but when they are actually moving the books there is confusion and sections must be redone. The critical team is the reshelving team. If they are not alert and clear on the process, hours are wasted."

Expect the Unexpected. Expect delays. Plan for them. (Have things for staff to do during the delay.) Don't assume very much: double check.

Check your architect's or shelving vendor's maps which show range placement on each floor. Go measure the space between a few columns (parallel to the light fixtures) in different sections of each floor yourself, and see if as many sections fit between them as are drawn on your maps. Then measure the distance between a few random columns (perpendicular to the light fixtures) on each floor and see if as many ranges and aisles of the right widths will fit between them.

Assume that your non-library movers (if you're not moving the collection yourself) are new staff: train them in shifting techniques. If they say they already know how to shift, that they are experienced collection movers, then ask them to train you as if you were a new laborer on their team. You might learn something.

We learned that a temp wall needed to be built parallel to the existing south wall. To do that, we needed to remove two sections from the south end of each range in the column of ranges next to that wall. Because it was a last minute and time-sensitive project, library staff could not do it. The movers who did were under the impression that the two end sections from each of 30 ranges could simply be moved to some temporary holding area for a year. They were not aware that the books in the entire column of ranges next to the south wall needed to be shifted. It's ok that they didn't know: it's also ok that we corrected the impression very early.

Use displays to inform your patrons about your progress. Use colored maps that show the movement of the collections: change them each day.

When moving furniture (office desks, etc.) make a two part inventory tag that each staff fills out for each item being moved. Include on each half:

• Room # moving from
• Room # moving to (large print)
• Inventory number (Ours was a combination department:number. Example: CAT:01, ACQ:10, CIR:01)
• Brief description (chair, desk, file cabinet-4 drawer, file cabinet-2 drawer)

We also put the data into a database, so we could print lists of what items we expected to have moved each night. This list was used by the mover's supervisor as a check list.

"The best advice I would give anyone is to try to find a way to hire people who are physically qualified to do the work... I thought I was physically able. But, it didn't work out that way.

"Anyone embarking on such a project that does use regular staff needs to make sure everyone, users, admin, etc. understands fully the impact of staff not doing regular work. Our mail just kept coming, etc. and we just had to cope. It took a long time to really recover even though checkin got back up pretty fast."

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