Hello again
Quite a few people have since asked for a summary of responses so rather than send out individually please find attached below a full summary. Apologies for the format but it's the only way I can get it to send!
Thanks again to everyone who sent me advice & good luck to everyone undertaking similar projects.
Vickie Orton
Learning Resource Adviser
Leeds Thomas Danby
0113 2846226
SUMMARY
Removal firms
Lots of people recommended Olympic removals and quite a few recommended Cadogan Tate
Olympic removals
http://www.olympicremovals.co.uk/libraries.htm
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel: 01992 654 999
We had a big refurbishment in our library last year. We used Olympic Removals (specialist library removal firm) to move books off shelves into storage crates (they also hire out the crates). On the whole they did a good job and worked fairly quickly. We have about 30,000 books in our library and it took them 2 and a half days to empty it and 3 days to restock at the end of the project.
Olympic removals provide crates, pack and unpack but at a cost...
(Olympic removals) Professional service and experienced library movers.
Cadogan Tate! We use them and they are very good.
http://www.cadogantate.com/business/
Pickfords
We used Pickfords Business Moving. The address then was Landor Street, Birmingham. B8 1AH. Tel no. was 07774456033 (www.pickfords.com)
Box suppliers
Quite a few people recommended TeaCrate
We've used TeaCrate http://www.teacrate.co.uk/ to supply the crates then Cadagon Tate http://www.cadogantate.com/ to do the moving.
Advice
* Pickfords provided boxes, labelling system, did the transfers, put the books back on the shelves, moved the metal racking, general paperwork & IT equipment as well. They were very professional & gave a great service. Crate hire then (2003) was 42p plus VAT per crate per week or part thereof. Relocation charge was just over £4000, but this is probably way off the mark by now.
* Just remember how important it is to label every shelf at both ends & mark each crate with the same label! Pickfords were very helpful when it came down to this & advised us well.
* TeaCrate & Cadogantate have been used several times for our various campus libraries. My main tip would be to make sure that you mark all your stock up very carefully as the chaps doing the moving don't really work from lists, they'll just work from what you've marked on the shelves so this can mean that books/journals end up in the wrong order. It's worth making sure that one of your staff watches them closely. We used coloured pieces of A4 paper to mark beginning and ends of runs to make it easy for the movers.
* My advice is to make sure that management don't force the cleaners to clear the shelves on your behalf, which is what happened two weeks before I started my new job, it was a nightmare to sort it out! The following year I had to do it all again, we weren't allowed a specialist company as they were too costly, so I made sure I got plenty of cardboard boxes and put 1 shelf per box. They were numbered shelf 1, shelf 2, shelf 3 etc.
* Measure the length of book stock you have to move, and measure again. Measure the new shelves and measure them again! Have a plan, label the shelves so everyone knows which box goes on which shelf, don't forget to leave expansion areas every so often in case you need them.
* In my opinion, the more measuring and planning you do the easier it is!
* My main bits of advice would be: keep your users informed at every stage of the project and consult with them if possible before any work takes place to make sure that they know what's going on and are ready for the changes/disruption. Also, plan well ahead and don't get phased when things don't go quite to plan! And make sure that the library's interests are represented at every stage of the project - you will need to be on all the planning committees etc. and (depending on the scale of your refurb) you will need to meet the architect and surveyor well in advance of any work starting. There are bound to be lots of design issues that you will need to bring to their attention! Also, work with them to make sure that the new library is DDA compliant.
* This time we rented crates from Teacrate http://www.teacrate.co.uk/ - it was organised by our facilities department. Library staff packed the crates themselves. I would recommend either packing yourself or being very clear about how it needs to be done as on a previous move we had books packed for us and it wasn't done properly. Although the packers kept things in order, they often took them from the wrong end of the shelves so that when putting them back there was a lot of sorting out to do. Other than that, there haven't been any major problems (so far)
* If you are using a temporary space to lend, we rented metal shelves on wheels during my first move, but I can't remember the name of the company to be honest.
* This time we have labelled the crates with first and last shelf mark on both the inside and the outside, just in case one falls off. We're pretty sure that they won't be stored in order so it will probably help when we put them back.
Leaflets
We (BL) have a leaflet on Moving and packing library and archive collections
- which can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.bl.uk/services/npo/publicationsleaf.html . Our 2004 Conference Papers also have some information on moving library and archive collections: http://www.bl.uk/services/npo/publicationsconf.html
Vickie Orton
mailto:[log in to unmask]
Leeds Thomas Danby
Roundhay Road
Leeds, LS7 3BG
tel: 0113 249 4912 fax : 0113 240 1967
http://www.leedsthomasdanby.ac.uk/
Principal and Chief Executive Roy Thorpe
http://www.leedsthomasdanby.ac.uk/
PBefore you print think about the ENVIRONMENT
This message contains confidential information and is intended only for [log in to unmask] If you are not [log in to unmask] you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify mailto:[log in to unmask] immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses Leeds Thomas Danby therefore does not accept responsability or liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message, which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.
|
