1. Aubrey George, Director of Spokane Public Library welcomed us to Spokane and to the library.

2. Then, three presentations on recent moves of depository collections:

• Elizabeth Thweatt of Gonzaga University Law School,
• Bob Menanteaux of Seattle University Law School
• Cass Hartnett of the University of Washington Libraries

Elizabeth reported on the law school library’s move of their collection from several sites to one new library Bob reported on the move from the Tacoma site to the new building on the campus of Seattle University Cass reported on the move to basement and storage areas of Suzzalo while the building is being renovated.

There were common themes in all three presentations: Plan, Organize.

Elizabeth:

• They moved from five buildings to one
• There was a need for transitional security
• The building was not completed when they were moving in, making preparation work critical
• The move was led by one person, there were teams, with captains organized by floor
• Two moves: the collection, and everything else
• Staff members packed their own office materials
• The move planning started 10 years ago
• An associate director was added to free the director for planning work
• The collection was weeded 8 years and 2 years before the move

Bob:

• This was the second move in 20 years, they moved to downtown Tacoma in 1980
• The whole collection was boxed, the boxes were precisely inventoried
• Professional movers were used
• Enumerated the variables
  • number of volumes
  • distance of the move
  • interim storage requirements
  • length of the window of time
  • size of the new space
  • formats to be moved
  • civic considerations, e.g., street permits for moving vans
  • “white glove” or “work glove,” i.e., does the staff do the moving work or is it done by professionals
  • selecting of the move management team
• They hired professional movers – library consultants who allied themselves with regular movers
• How to organize for moving – break tasks down into “chunks” – manageable components
• Move planning process – create a critical path of sequences of tasks
• Bibliotech, from Connecticut, designs software to help with moves
• The physical move took one week
• They had a big plan for the first day, did daily planning after that – all planning done by the library staff
• Communication – tell everybody who might be affected about the plans, give lots of information to library staff
• When moving into compact shelving, you can’t do multiple moving into different areas
• When shelving binders – they don’t quite fit into compact shelving, so the shelves take up larger space
• Microfiche – use detail
• oriented staff to do microfiche planning
• Microforms – shrink
• wrap the cabinets due to torque while moving
• Keep plastic sheets handy for leaks – moving is the first use of the building
• Keep plastic garbage cans full of supplies, including first aid and plastic sheets

Cass:

• U of Washington is renovating Suzzalo; it was built in 1925, has gone through 4 additions; it is a high seismic risk
• Government publications reference services are now in the basement with maps, the collection has been moved to a locked sub
• basement
• The staff moved 2/3 of the collection themselves
• Appoint move coordinators at all levels
• Pay attention to the health and morale of the workers
• Promote safety, e.g., hard hats and first aid kits
• Overplan – be prepared for the unforeseen, e.g., improperly set shelves
• Overcommunicate
• Allocate extra time and resources for the end of the move
• Relieve move coordinators from their regular duties
• Take time to measure the collection ahead of time
• Use uniform measures and measure to the inch
• Estimate growth space
• Signage for staff and for public
• Talk to anyone impacted by the move, tell them what to expect and when
• Use something visual to measure the move, e.g., a thermometer or pie chart
• Work toward limiting vacation and sick time for critical periods
• Learn about the work habits of the professional movers
• Keep up humor, be loose, have celebrations, take pictures

According to our three experts, follow these guidelines and you’ll have a successful move.

3. What’s Happening with the Government Information:

• The present legislative appropriations bill includes 25% cuts in GPO funding
• A recent roll call vot put back about $100 million, still considerably less than present funding
• See GODORT web site (www.lib.berkeley.edu/GODORT/) for more information
• No news about NTIS
• Cass gave a presentation at the recent WLA conference – “Why You Should Love Your Government… on the Web”
• The State library will have a new Regional Depository Librarian – Arlene Weible, who is presently at Willamette University in Salem, OR.

4. NGIN Business Meeting

• Ann Roselle won election to be President
• elect of NGIN
• Thanks to Carlos Diaz for running
• Rob Lopresti won election to be Webmaster
• Jennifer Boteler won election to be Secretary
• The next meeting will be in Bellingham in the Fall, at Whatcom Community College. We hope to get Arlene Weible to be the keynote speaker. A possible subject is Bibliographic control.
• Tami Echavarria of Whitworth College in Spokane volunteered to host the Spring, 2001 meeting.
• Financial report:
  • dues, $10, will be collected at the Fall meeting
  • we have $140 in the bank
  • it was suggested to use the money for honoraria for outside speakers, as well as flyers and promotional materials for our meetings
  • bring friends, non
  • depository people, to the meetings.

14 people attended, including Larry Blair, director of the law library at the University of Laverne, part of the Claremont Colleges in California.