Photographs

I know that I mentioned at the staff meeting that a local photographer, Mike Wood, had attended one of the "Empty Library Tours" a few weeks ago. He spent an hour and a half taking photographs and fortunately enjoyed a rare bit of sunshine which provided visual interest. I just thought you'd like to see a few of his "shots". I have all of them if you are interested. They are very striking and evocative. The picture second from the bottom appeared in the Weekly News this week. Mike would like to have a chance to photograph the library again after it is renovated and before we move back.

Back on Track

Well, I just had a look at the date of my last post and I must hang my head in shame. It's about time to fill you on where we are situated with the revitalization project. As you may or may not know, we have hired K and L Construction as our Contractor and the documents have been signed. This means that construction on the library will begin within two weeks. Paul Giza and I will be attending our initial meeting with K and L and the architects next Wednesday morning at the library.

It is time to begin choosing finishes and furnishings. We decided that we needed some assistance with this so we have hired In2Space, the same interior design firm that assisted us with the administration move. Kyle has come up with a concept and look he'd like to create and Jennifer from In2Space will be assisting us to "tweak" it. We will be enlisting the assistance of the Colour Committee to help us make decisions on things like carpeting, colours etc. We need to have all furnishings ordered by the end of July so it's going to be a busy summer.

More updates soon....

Moving Organization

Well, after a brief absence, I'm back with new about ****surprise**** the BIG move. Just to make life interesting, an auction is being organized while we are packing. It will be held on Saturday, March 19th. What this means is that the main area of the basement and the Carnegie Room will have the general public milling around in them to view auction items. We need to ensure that none of our stuff gets mixed in with the auction stuff. You may have noticed some of your colleagues doing a little organization today and taking stuff into the offices. We are going to be using Rudi's office to hold boxes of stuff that will be used at the Mall and Glenda's/Nettie's office for boxes of stuff that will go into storage at the Mall. We also plan to block off the circulation work area with dividers so that the public isn't in this area. This means that packed stuff can go directly into one or the other. Please don't leave it in the cleared area just inside the Administration Area. We officially have an "Auction Committee" which includes the following people: Jody, Cindy, Carol, Meagan, Trish, Effie, Terri B., Donna H. These are people who will be working on March 19th during the auction. Don't worry, we'll call you when we need you! As always, ask questions if you have them.

Schedule is Posted

As we all know, time has a way of moving far too quickly when there is much to be done. And we DO have much to do before our moving dates. Thank you to everyone for all of their efforts on the dotting project. John Knox finally sent us floor plans for the Adult and Children's/Teens' areas so we have a much better idea of layout and amount of materials that can be accommodated.

The Relocation Task Force spent some time yesterday morning identifying areas that need to be cleaned out and packed by staff in the next couple of months. Terri and I used the list that was generated and have come up with a schedule that is now on the large white board inside the door of the Administration area. It clearly identifies the areas, who is assigned to them and the absolute deadline for completion. You will notice that the Support Team is responsible for some of these areas. I will be meeting with the members of that team early next week. Once you have completed assigned areas, please just cross them off the board. Ruthie holds the white board markers.

I just wanted to ask staff to:

1. Remove anything from the staff room that is yours by February 18th. Mary K. will be ruthlessly cleaning out and packing what is left after that date.

2. Clean out all lockers in the building by February 18th.

Please feel free to talk to Terri B. or I with concerns and questions. The countdown to moving day is on!!

Tags

As I'm sure you've noticed if you've been around the Library today, there are brightly coloured tags appearing on our furniture. And yes, we know that it is a dream to believe that they will actually remain on the furniture in the public spaces. However, just to make you aware of what it all means, here are the colour codes:

Yellow Tag means going to auction (which will take place on March 26th at the Library)
Orange Tag means going to the mall and coming back to live in the Revitalized Library
Blue Tag means going to the mall but not coming back to the Revitalized Library
Green Tag means going to the mall in storage
Purple Tag means giving it away for free!

We have tags available in each of the colours and will need your assistance. We are not tagging anything that will be moved to the Administration Area in the first move right now. We do however need to be able to show the potential movers on Friday morning what they will be moving. Please take a good look at your own spaces and tag anything that isn't already. We had particular trouble with filing cabinets. There is a deadline for this....Friday morning at 10:00 a.m.

If you have any "tag" disputes, please let Terri or I know. Many thanks...

Staffing During Move

I know that many of you are wondering about your hours of work during the move. The plan is to aim for comparable hours to what you are presently working over the long term. However, we can't guarantee the same hours or schedule for the two weeks of the move itself. We are exploring a variety of options for staff activity during the March 21st to 31st time frame. We may still be working on preparations for the move or we may take the time to offer some staff training. We'll let you know more details as we proceed.

Divide and Conquer

Can you believe it? Two blog posts in one day! I just have more and more to tell you so I'll do so as I think of it instead of waiting and forgetting. We'd like to get all staff actively involved in planning for our move and in thinking about the services we will provide while we are at the Mall. We've already established the Relocation Task Force. Now we'd like to add two other working groups, namely the Programming and Public Services Team and the Support Team. Here are the members of the two:

Programming and Public Services Team
Paul Blower
Susan
Rudi
Heather
Ruth
Peter
Effie
Janet
Trish
Crystal

Support Team
Cindy
Mary Meharg
Terri Scott
Mary Kinczyk
Glenda
Paula
Tyler
Barb
Dana
Jody
New Person

I'll be talking to department heads about scheduling a meeting with the Programming and Public Services Team early next week.