Library staff have been working to minimize disruption to program operations, said Jean Sheviak, acting director of the library. With a substantial portion — up to 45 percent — of the library's collection of 500,000 volumes in off-campus storage, librarians have assembled a prompt and regular retrieval system to ensure that books will be available in a timely manner, usually within a day of the request.
“We're urging students, faculty and staff to plan ahead as much as possible,”
Sheviak said. “There will be some inconveniences in that some materials will need to
be ordered, but in most cases we will have a one-day retrieval.”
Library staff will retrieve requested materials at least once per day from the
library's main warehouse at Hattie and Devine streets, Sheviak said. Books in storage at
Mullen Moving and Storage will be retrieved daily through a courier. (Inter-Library Loan
will not be used to retrieve materials that the library owns.) Off-campus storage has been
restricted to materials that have not circulated since 1988.
Patrons will be given regular updates on changes through a series of bulletins and a
“Today's Specials” menu board in the building's entry. Also, users may check
“What's New at Schaffer Library” on the WWW site: www.union.edu/computing/library/library.html.
All library operations that deal directly with patrons have been consolidated in the
original 1961 building. Technical Services and Inter-Library Loan administration are to be
relocated in North Colonnade (the former Psychology Building), with both being accessible
through the circulation department.