It Has Begun!!!

At approximately 9:15 this morning, the movers arrived to begin moving the Lake Blackshear Regional Library. It is great to see this day arrive. Southeast Storage Solutions, Inc. out of High Springs, Florida have been working all day moving our shelves and books. For those of you familiar with our library - the workers are disassembling the shelves that hold the non-fiction books, beginning with the Dewey Decimal number 001. Looking at the first floor shelves, the workers are beginning near the window and working towards the back of the library. At the end of the day Monday they had moved nine complete shelves and one single sided shelf - working well past the elevator on the first floor. The books are taken off the shelves and loaded onto big wooden carts. The carts are then rolled onto a truck and transported to the Manhattan building. The books remain on the carts until the shelves are in place.

We can finally see what the Manhattan building will look like. We visited over there about 3:30 and there were four shelves in place (the other five will be up this evening). By the end of this week we will surely get a good look at what the stacks will look like. Also, we are beginning to see walls put up on the various offices and workrooms.

It has been a very interesting day. We went from not knowing anything about the book moving operation to seeing it close up and feeling pretty good about everything. We certainly are optimistic about opening January 22nd. Shortly after that date, work will begin on the Lake Blackshear Regional building.

Tomorrow we will post some pictures from today of both sites. Check back with us tomorrow afternoon.