Books Coming Back

Today's Daily Egyptian reports that the books in the McLafferty Annex soon will be returned to the Morris Library building. I'm excited about the books coming back. Since my first couple months at SIU, I've looked forward to the day that I no longer have to answer the question, "What part of the building is the McLafferty Annex?" As excited as I am, I try not to grin too widely in front of Dean Carlson.

The McLafferty Annex is just one of the storage facilities that the library has. The renovation and expansion was not designed to be big enough to hold all the materials in those other buildings. "Another concern is two of the storage areas are in horrible shape, he said, causing recent mold problems to affect thousands of books. Although the books have been taken care of this time, Carlson said he worries about more problems it may cause. He said the storage facility on Marion Street has caused the most trouble and is in the worst condition. Carlson said these buildings were only intended for short-term storage." On top of that, with the 6th and 7th floors of the library incomplete, space for new books will run out within a few years.

The dean's hope was that after the books were returned from McLafferty, the library could continue to have McLafferty for storage. Materials in the other storage buildings could be moved to McLafferty Annex building, and the library could vacate the other storage buildings.  Fisheries labs are going to move to the basement of the McLafferty Annex. Other units on campus eying the McLafferty building for their own space needs, including to get out of other buildings that are in horrible shape. Prospects for the library being able to keep the rest of the McLafferty building do not look good.

Why don’t we have volunteers bring the books back?

Every couple of months, I see something in the comments section of a blog or a news article that asks why Morris Library can’t just have volunteers bring the books, all the books back from the McLafferty Annex. Aside from all of the issues with liability, loss, misshelving, and the scale of such a move, there’s an obvious reason that it isn’t happening. The basement of Morris Library, where the books are to go, does not have shelves. Despite all of the people who have been to the basement for events or tornado warnings, this information still is not widely known.

In case you don’t believe me, here are some photographs of the unfinished parts of the library.

The basement has space for shelves but no shelves.

The sixth floor needs more work than the basement.

The seventh floor looks a lot like the sixth. 

One million served?

Steve Sawyer, a senior library specialist who works at the circulation desk sent the following message to library staff this morning,

"Thought everyone would be (mildly) interested in the fact that somewhere between yesterday morning and this morning, the counter on the north-end security gate rolled over one million.

We now have proof that the renovated library IS popular and people DO like us.

(never mind the fact that this number includes those of us who work here and counts people leaving as well as coming)"