Speaking of shutting down

The library... It's hard to believe how little time is left.

So tired

I packed 48 boxes today, almost 5,000 journals, to be sent to India this week. This is what my library looks like now.

After work, I took a friend to an appointment, and listened to an audiobook (John Skalzi's The Dispatcher) while chilling out in the waiting room. Then we went to the store, got gas and groceries, stopped by Gumbo Ya Ya for takeout, stopped by yet another grocery store with a wine and spirits shop, and then spent three and a half hours watching videos. I got home just a little while ago, at 11:30 pm. I'm pooped. I've taken some ibuprofen (forgot to do that last night and slept very little) and a half a Trazadone. I really want to get some rest tonight.

Good night.

Where the bound journals were.

The unbound journals were on these two middle ranges.

Most of the library is bare now.

Everything's gone from the two middle ranges.

Just have the books to go; most to departments, others to donate.

Well, about a third of my library is bare, now

Thanks to one of our doctors, I was put in contact with the founder of a local organisation [We Serve Foundation] that takes books and sends them to India. Dr. Viji came last week and then today he brought boxes and I boxed the unbound journals up and he put the boxes in his car and took them over to the International Book Project's warehouse (they're a partner organisation that is also based here in Lexington). It took four trips, about thirty boxes. I packed about 780 bound journals. Tomorrow we do the unbound ones. All told we're talking about 84 three-foot shelves, so about 252 linear feet of materials. We did 108 linear feet today, so I'm a little sore and will no doubt be stiff tomorrow. But at least they'll be used and appreciated, and not recycled or trashed. 

I'm glad that he's going to be able to take them and put them to good use. But I have to admit, I'm a bit sore from all that packing and the little bit of lifting I did. 

I won't include the picture of us shaking hands or standing next together, because I don't really have his permission to publish the picture here, and I think our PR person will take care of that on social media, but this shows about a third to a half of the journals taken away. The rest are bare now, over past that book truck on the right.

It's a little sad, of course. Soon I'll be in a (virtually) empty room. I'm still working on the books, trying to get them to the departments, and his organisation may get whatever's not taken. But as of tomorrow, I'll just have books in the library, no journals, except for a few the staff wanted.

So now I'm home. I had thought to go to the library, but I'm relaxed, in my nightshirt, have eaten, and I am listening to music. Maybe I'll just relax, and maybe take a long bath later, so that I don't stiffen up. I'll keep you posted.

Moral of the story, I suppose

Is not to shift twelve shelving units (72 shelves) of heavy medical books and bound journals (some of which are six inches wide!) by yourself, especially if you are in you 40s and have some neck/shoulder/back issues anyway (as many people in their 40s do). The problem being, of course, that I am the only library staff--I don't have a tech or volunteer to work with. Volunteers have really been needed in other parts of the hospital of late, and no one, I'm sure, wants to move a lot of books. If I were actually moving the library I'd box up books with the help of volunteers, and then probably materials management, environmental services, or plant operations would make sure they made it to the loading dock and then on their own home.

But we're not moving, Blanche.

Instead, I'm looking at the daunting task of shuttering a library. The only good thing about going through this is I might be able to write about it, get an article published. But it doesn't make it less heartbreaking to know that the library I cared for for nearly 20 years will be (at best) parceled out to departments and other hospitals and libraries. It's not a big library at all, about 15 by 30 feet, and some of that is occupied by cubicles that were put in a few years ago for another department. But it's home. Let me show it to you, at least in part:

Book collection (with unbound journals in foreground)

Bound journals (and some things I'm working on)

I won't show the rest, but I took a set of pictures all around the room to remember it by. I will so miss this place!

Okay, the muscle relaxer is kicking in (very tiny doses, but still), I feel a little better, but sleepy, too. Good night!