Three Months Down

We have been in our temporary building for three months now!! That means there has been three months of work done at LB on Lamar Street. It seems every time we go over there, great changes have occurred. I took more photos, some of which will be on the next blog.

We continue to get good news from the people at Warren Scott. Now, this is not official...it's just a possibility...no wagering...it is possible the building may be finished before Thanksgiving. That does not mean we can move right back in. I still believe we will be moving during the month of December - that's if everything continues to work out.

Looking ahead a little - Lake Blackshear will look different when we reopen. We plan to move a few things around a bit. The plan right now is to have the YA (Young Adult) materials moved from the front wall next to the BIG window to what I call the cave. This is the area that housed the public access computers. This will give the young adults an area they can call their own. So, what about the computers? Where will they go? Hmmm...I'll save that for the next blog!!

Here are some of the more recent photos.






Looking out from the main lobby inside LB through what was the big window.


This area was the magazine/newspaper corner.



That's the Special Collection Room upstairs.



Brickword just outside the front door.




The open area you see will be the window of the children's library.



In the middle you can see the framing for a side door leading out of the arts and crafts area of the children's library. To the right of this door was the crack so bad we could see outside. The photo of that crack is in an earlier blog.







The trolley will be put back right here.




Looking down the front wall of the children's library.



This view is actually through what will be the big wall that separates the front door area from the main lobby.



Looking up through the Special Collections Room.



Looking down the front wall of the main lobby. This wall to the right is where the big front window will be.



Outside view




The front door area.

More soon!!

It's Getting Better All The Time

This is what the Beatles sang in 1967. In 2008, however, we are not singing, but we can see things ARE getting better at Lake Blackshear. We call our Lamar Street home, "LB" which stands for Lake Blackshear.

As you can see from the photos below, LB is all torn up. This is a good thing. We can also see new brick work. This is a great thing, for we know the project is moving along. We have been told by the construction people that it looks like we will be back in LB before Christmas. This is the best news we could have. We are all looking forward to getting back where we belong - in our beautiful building. As tears roll down my face...um, nevermind - here are the photos.

This first photo is looking at the east side of the building - the side with the huge wall. For those of you familiar with the building, the special collections room is on the other side of the wall - inside on the second floor.


















This photo actually shows the windows inside the building of the special collections room. The photo was taken looking through what were the big glass windows of the main lobby.


















Looking east-southeast - the work was to be done in two phases, the west side being first and then the east side. Obviously, work has moved on to the east side.


















This photo is of the west wall. As you can see, this wall is nearly finished. The brick "steps" look as though they are done - all that is left is the top part.


















Another photo showing both sides or both phases. You can see the new brick walls in the front of the building.


















Here you can easily see the new wall in the front of the building. The children's library would be directly behind this wall.


















Just another photo looking south-southeast at the main lobby section.


















Looking directly into the main lobby. Once again, if you are familiar with the library you can see the computer lab and literacy rooms upstairs in the back.


















The final photo was taken looking north-northeast at the west wall. The wall is almost complete and may not be finished until the new roof is done.


More blogging soon!!

Then and Now

The photos on today's blog were taken before we moved in to our Tripp Street home and after. The actual dates are 11-28-07 and 1-2-08 for before and 3-13-08 for after. The first photo is before we moved in and the next photo is after we moved in. The photos are in pairs. For points of reference, look at beams and light fixtures. Just for fun!!

Tornado Damage

Look at this!!! A year and ten days after the tornado, our building has that "hit by a tornado look!" It's interesting, one could hardly tell we had any damage - yet, because of the damage you could not see - we have this...damage!!

It's not really damage, but good construction work by the folks at Warren Scott here in Americus. We at the library think the project is moving along - so much so that I predict we will be back home before Christmas. Sing it with me - "I'll be home for Christmas." This is nothing more than a very optimistic prediction. But it could happen.

One part of the project that will take time will be the brick work - especially the "stepped" brick work that is somewhat unique to the Lake Blackshear building. Each time a row is bricked, it will have to set before another can be done. If you look at the library you can see this brickwork. It is what gives the building its look. It'll be interesting to see the brickwork as it is done. It should be good and hot by then - those guys are amazing!!

Life continues on Tripp Street. We are settled and used to being here now, but are really ready to get back home. We have been so blessed to have such a roomy/comfortable place to stay while our building is being fixed. If you are reading this and have not been by, please come by and see the library - you have about nine more months.

Our next blog will have some interesting then and now photos - at least that is the plan. I will attempt to show photos of the Manhattan building as we first found it and then show the current photo below it - so you can compare.

Until then...read something.

Carpet

Although we have only been open in our new/temporary building for twenty-four days, we are already beginning to plan for our return to Lamar Street (my prediction is we will be back before Christmas - please keep in mind this is only a prediction). Today we came to a decision about the carpet we will have when we return. It is called Aurora and it must have every color known to man. The big problem we had was matching the color of the carpet with the end panels of the book shelves. There seemed to always be one color we could not match. Well, endeavor to persevere. We met with a representative from Shiver Lumber Company (Shiver has been contracted by Warren Scott - the company renovating the Lake Blackshear Library). We had spent many days trying to decide what carpet to get. We just couldn't come to a decision. It took less than five minutes with the Shiver representative for us to have our carpet. It's amazing what expertise can do for you. So, we began the day in celebration!

I've noticed the windows are now gone from the Lamar Street site. Workers have been on the roof. Of course if anyone has driven by and looked it is easy to see the fence around the site. I have many photos of the empty building I am including in this blog. The photos are perhaps the only ones we will ever see of the library like it is now. Back in 1994, when the second level was built, there are a few photos floating about - but only a few. Hopefully we will not have to renovate again for a long while.


Empty Lake Blackshear








The magazine newspaper corner



The front windows looking at Lamar


The public computers area



The computer sign-up desk area


The front desk area


The front desk area again


The carpet coming up

No carpet at front desk


The children's library with no carpet


The actual "command central' during the move. This table was in the workroom at Lake Blackshear. Our only phone was here. Sitting at the desk is former director Jane Hendrix, who was a very important advisor during the move. In 1994, Jane moved the entire library with staff and prisoner labor only!


Our children's coordinator Beth Tanner's office at Lake Blackshear


Beams for support before demolition



More beams - this is the magazine newspaper corner


The front walkway at LB


The front door area


The children's library at LB

More pictures will follow as things begin to come down and go up at Lake Blackshear.

Stay tuned...

Getting In The Groove

Things have begun to settle down. We are all gettting back into the groove of what we do. The PINES system is beginning to be mastered by most folks. We are actually running two systems - our old one, which we use to check in books that may have been out in that system and the new PINES system. After a while we will be able to totally turn off the old system and just use PINES. That will be a big day!

The play/theater event was a great success. We did not know how well it would be attended because we were in a new place. All three nights were well attended. We had to bring out extra chairs for both the Saturday night and Sunday afternoon performances. The dinner went great Saturday night. We were fortunate to have some great high school students help with serving - what a great job they did! All seemed to be wonderful people. The play itself, "A Mullet Family Reunion" was a smash. Never before have there been so many mullets on one stage!!

Our attention will now turn to the Lake Blackshear building. We have noticed that some of the landscaping has been removed. Tire marks have appeared on the front lawn. Beams can be seen inside the main lobby. So far, things have moved very quickly - something that has given us hope for a quick return. We have been assured things will begin to slow down as the actual construction will soon begin. The construction will be done in two phases. That entire front wall of the library must come down and then be replaced. The construction will move around the sides of the building going back about 20-30 feet. Everything will be restored just as it was the morning of 1 March 2007. We will be able to paint and carpet the building. We are presently performing the arduous task of choosing a carpet. Generally, there are three of us who will make this decision - the Director, the Assistant Director and the Administrative Assistant. It is really interesting how people's tastes are different regarding carpet. Whatever the carpet winds up being, it will be nice and give the library a small, different look.

The next blog will be early next week - hopefully Monday. We have alot of pictures from the empty lake Blackshear building that we will put up. As the construction goes along we will have many photos for you.

Once again, this blog will be continued.

Back On Line

At last, we are finally back on-line, or should I say on-line at our new home. What an adventure!! It is Friday - Monday we will open to the public and we still have a lot to do. We will be working through tomorrow and some of us will be here Sunday. When ten o'clock comes Monday morning we will still be getting settled. On top of that, it will be the first day we will be on the PINES system. On top of that, Tuesday we have a visiting author. Oh, yeah, the play starts FRIDAY!!!!! What a week!!

I once again have limited time to blog and I apologize wholeheartedly for not being able to blog the last two weeks, but that is just how it worked out. For some odd reason, I was unable to blog from my home. I tried and tried, but could not.

The movers did an excellent job. It was quite a show. They came in with these huge wooden book carts. They took the books off of the shelves and filled up a lot of these carts. Once the books were on the carts, they disassembled the shelves. The shelves were taken over to Manhattan and reassembled in their correct places. The books were then taken off of the carts and put back on the shelves. Each row of the carts was tagged with location information. Moving the books and the shelves was not a problem at all downstairs. Upstairs became a little more involved...or so we thought. These guys have seen it all. They once again put all the books onto the carts and disassembled the shelves. In most cases they were able to keep the frames together. They simply lifted the frames over the glass wall down to someone on the first floor. That person was usually on a table or something like that. That also was done pretty easily.

Moving the books and shelves was the easy part. Once this was done, all of the other junk had to be moved. This was what was so intense. Office supplies, tables, chairs, tools, catalog equipment, book equipment, fax machine, copiers, scanners, all the circulation equipment, cleaning supplies, food and drinks, ladders, computers, monitors, keyboards, mouses, printers, magazines, newspapers, wooden shelves from offices, desks and contents, countless power cords, countless computer cords, paper...everything. We had boxed up just about everything and labelled the boxes. My boxes were labelled Rich. My name was outside my new office in the Manhattan building. The movers simply put all of my boxes in my new office. Easy!! Some of the boxes, however, never got labbeled. These would wind up somewhere. Whoever the box belonged to would have to find it. That was fun for most folks.

The movers could have had us moved in no time, but the construction at Manhattan was very involved. What made it worse for the workers was a time limit. They were really under the gun. It was amazing how they were able to do what they did. In less than a month, they took an empty 100,000 square foot building and turned it into a 20,000 foot area, complete with offices, made specifically for a library. They made eight offices, a workroom, and a storage room we named Easy (because the things in it were to be easy to get to). Oh, we also have two bathrooms that we will all share. Needless to say, there was much more work - construction, electrical, heat and air, plumbing, cleaning, etc.

Our staff came back yesterday, the 24th. They have been busy moving things around, setting-up...good gosh, the things that have to be done just for someone to be able to check out a book!! Anyway, they have been and will be busy into next week. All the while getting used to working in a new place - most of these people have not been away from Lake Blackshear in thirteen years. Indeed, some of us have only been at Lake Blackshear.

Although the move is practically over, I will continue to blog at least for awhile. Perhaps I will turn my attention to the theater event coming next week. That's another intersting topic. I'll do that a little next time. If I have left out anything I will blog it as soon as I can. I hope you enjoy this and again I am sorry for being away for two weeks.

To be continued...