Vol.51  No.3 Fall 2009

Library Hours (link removed)

Contents
· Library Commons Opens

· Return of the Alferez Frieze

· Embase Enhancements

· Shifting Journals

· Announcements
  Springer Protocols Available

· Staff News

· Publishing Information

Back to the Library's Home Page (link removed)

Library Bulletin Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Library -- New Orleans

Library Transformations Across the Floors

Sometimes predictions can be eerily accurate. In the Summer 1999 edition of the Library Bulletin, former staff member Tom Finicle described the shifting project the staff tackled that year. In the article, he said the moves made then would provide the collection with enough space to last through 2009. Fast forward a decade and this statement holds true, as the Isché Library staff is once again embarking on a major shifting project of the fifth floor journal stacks.

Whereas this project would have been needed years ago if we still received the numbers of titles in print as we did in 1999, it is now necessary because of the continued transformations to the third floor of the Library. To help in the creation of a new seating area, the indexes and abstracts currently shelved there will be moved to the fifth floor with the journals. As a result, we have to create a space for these volumes to go on the existing shelving, making the moving of all volumes of journals on the fifth floor necessary. However, aside from helping to open up an area of the third floor, this move also gives us the opportunity to adjust the spacing for some cramped areas of the collection as well as to allocate enough room for those titles we still receive in print by allowing for ten to fifteen years' worth of growth.

If you've recently made it up to the fifth floor where the journal collection is housed, you've no doubt noticed the signs, migrating rows of empty shelves, and various members of the Isché Library staff busily moving carts full of what seems to be an unending supply of volumes. The increased noise and bustle are necessary inconveniences of this project, but since starting in the middle of June, it is moving along at a rapid pace. We also know that at times journals are somewhat difficult to find depending upon where the project has reached. Hopefully any difficulties in finding a title are short-lived for as we complete shifting sections of the stacks, new signs are placed at the ends of the rows reflecting the titles now shelved on those aisles. The Library staff appreciates our patrons' understanding that this time of chaos and minor nuisances is temporary and will result in an improvement for the Library.

-- Rebecca Bealer (link removed)