Thanks to the collaboration of many people, the piles of volumes formerly stacked on 2nd and 3rd floors in Ellis are gone. For many years, at least twenty according to several staff members, the serious space shortage in the Ellis Stacks had led to volumes being piled on the floor at the ends of ranges. The piles created a cluttered look, were not good for the spines of the volumes, and made it difficult for users to locate the books in them. Many observers over the years commented on the piles, and by this past September various library staff were having discussions on what could be done to address this longstanding situation.
As of late January, the volumes have been transferred to UMLD or reintegrated into the regular stacks. This could not have been accomplished without the coordinated efforts and hard work of Ellis Reference, Access Services, and the Catalog Department. Nancy Myers, Gwen Gray, Cindy Cotner, and Geoff Swindells of the Ellis Reference Department identified titles to be reshelved at Ellis or transferred to UMLD. Ryan Bish then sent a list of the titles to Catalog Management. Ryan, Jim Franke-Webb, Jack Stone, Hayden Murphey, Alex Hopkins, David Shay, and student assistants in Shelving followed up by shelving some of the titles and shifting as needed to make space. In less than a week, Dan Dodd, E. S. Bent, Ruthe Morse, and student assistants Karen Marshall, Lingling Qi, and Jimmy Connell of the Catalog Management Department retrieved and transferred 997 volumes to UMLD. Colleen Smith, Catalog Management, took care of the serials check-in record reconciliation in MERLIN. James Keyser-Andre, Dan Akins, Brian Cain, and student assistants picked up the tubs and finished processing the volumes at UMLD1 and UMLD2.
Thanks to everyone for jumping right in and making things happen! Take a walk through the stacks and enjoy the new, uncluttered look!