Year 3 - Day 189 - July 7

It wouldn't be a visit from my mom if we didn't do some kind of home improvement project. This weekend she hung these shelves in the computer room so that the Duclaw and other assorted glasses could all be on display together (and off of the family room shelves, as seen here.) They really aren't as crooked in real life as they appear on this picture, which makes they look like they're going to tumble any moment. :)

Year 3 - Day 150 - May 29

It's been really hard to put books away lately, because I haven't had time to replace the labels on the shelves. We're going by picture memory. You may not notice this if you're just a casual library patron, but the way the book shelves look is the same to me as a picture on the wall. When whole piles of books switch shelves, it's like moving a picture to another place on the wall or to another room. This particular set of books is the flight and race cars section. They've been on the back of this island on the bottom right shelf for all 10+ years I've been there. Now they're on the top front left! It's weird to look over and see them there. But we have to use that image to shelve the books because otherwise you walk to the wrong section. Before this shift, those of us who shelve daily could walk right to a book and put our finger on it. We didn't have to look at anything when we were putting books away because we just knew where they went. Now, it's seriously difficult. If you're a librarian, you might know what I mean!

Year 3 - Day 145 - May 24

After spending about a week hemming and hawing, I have finally decided to move the books around in the room. Previously, the books were organized based on the physical space available. For example, the 600's were all on an island book shelf by themselves. However, there were too many books for that zone. It was a hard mental shift to get ready for, but with signage I think the kids will survive. They'll also find lots of new-to-them books in the fall when they walk to the cookbook shelf and it's now farming books! :) I put my hands on thousands of books during the shift, and spent lots of time doing it since I was weeding as I went. After also moving all the mulch this week, my arm muscles have declared a strike and are going on vacation.