Repost: [Sca-cooks] [Fwd: [Fwd: Yeah so?]]

[Jenne Heise]

> > > In the library I work in, the facilities planners'
> > > first response to
> > > complaints that shelving on the top of 8-foot
> > > shelving units would make
> > > books inaccessible was, "Can't you put the least
> > > used books on the top
> > > shelf?"
> > Well....couldn't you??  Or, get some of those rolling
> > ladders?

Elm junked my message again.

The reason we can't put the least used books on the top shelf is that the
books are in call number order. We use the Dewey Decimal Call number
system; other libraries use Library of Congress or others. The idea is
that books with similar subjects are grouped together in a standard
arrangement.

As for the rolling ladders: you can, with some finagling, arrange a
rolling ladder to go along one side of one bank of book cases. We have
at least 35 banks of cases on each of the top three floors of the new
wing, each bank including 4-6 cases. Note that if you have ladders you
will have to increase the distance between banks to make a wider aisle,
thus fitting in even less bookcases.
(We're putting in compact shelving on one floor to handle the bound
journals...)

The Indiana library sinking story is not true: the campus apparently has a
sheet of bedrock about 5 feet below the surface.
http://www.indiana.edu/~libweb/campus/libsink.html

On the other hand, it is true that the entire collection of a major
California city library was torched in the time it took for the fire
company literally around the block to respond: less than 5 minutes. (There
were no sprinklers: they had been dispensed with as a cost cutting measure
since the fire company was next door. Thank goodness the fire occured at
night.) If a fire alarm goes off in a library, don't argue: remove
yourself immediately!

 --
Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, mka Jennifer Heise	      jenne at mail.browser.net
disclaimer: i speak for no-one and no-one speaks for me.
"It's no use trying to be clever-- we are all clever here; just try
to be kind -- a little kind." F.J. Foakes-Jackson