It's All About Order
Look up at the sky on any clear night and you can see numerous stars shining down upon you. To anyone who is unfamiliar with constellations, these stars are simply random dots against the black (or gray) background. However, to someone with a sky map and a bit of patience, constellations seem to form from the randomness. These constellations, or star patterns, were mapped out early in this century to form a common frame of reference for stargazers.
Libraries follow a similar logic; put things in a standardized order and people can find them. Unlike the stars, though, a journal collection changes with time, outgrowing its space in a horrifyingly brief time. When that happens, the choices for fixing the problem are few. Either you get more space, stop getting new material, throw out the old stuff, or rearrange your collection in such a way as to make better use of your space. The last choice is called "shifting" and is just what we are starting to do now. The Library Staff has cooperated to measure each and every title in the library. With this data we can accurately plan a shift that will give us growing space through at least 2009. Once all this data is finally compiled, we will begin the physical shifting of the over 3500 titles in our collection. If this seems like a big project, that is because it is, but we believe that the results are worth it.
What does all this mean to you, our patrons? It means a Summer full of activity and some noise in the journal stacks that cannot be helped. However, when it is finished, our collection should be consistently shelved, better documented for easier access, and well spaced for growing room. We ask you to bear with us during this time, because the library will ultimately benefit from this project.
-- Tom Finicle
tfinic@lsumc.edu link removed