Preparations have begun to close the University of Virginia’s central Alderman Library for a significant renovation and expansion. Part of this renovation will mean that the stacks of the library will be demolished.
That means 1.7 million books and materials are being moved from Alderman to nearby Clemons Library or the Ivy Stacks, the off-site shelving facility located a mile from central Grounds.
By call number order, books going to Clemons were moved first. The rest of the items are headed to the Ivy Stacks, most of which will be returned to Alderman after renovation.
The books are put into open cardboard boxes called “trays” with the call numbers and corresponding bar codes visible for scanning and shelving.
When the books are arranged in the trays and scanned, they are packed into 5-cubic-foot stackable crates for moving. The crew has 550 crates in use at any one time.
This series documents the process that is underway to relocate library materials and do the first comprehensive survey of the collection in decades.