Barcoding the items is also necessary for the movement of volumes in anticipation of the renovation. The first floor of Clemons Library is currently being equipped to hold a social sciences and humanities collection during the renovation, while most other books will move to temporary storage in Ivy Stacks.
These books are still in circulation, however, and can easily be delivered to library patrons.
“Patrons request items from Ivy Stacks via Virgo, the library’s online catalog,” Vermillion said. “The requested items are delivered to an on-Grounds library selected by the patron at the time of request,” where they then can be picked up.
After the renovation, most of the books moved to Ivy Stacks will come back to Grounds.
In a building as beloved as Alderman Library, interesting items often find their way to the stacks.
For example, a journal apparently from one of the University’s many secret societies found its way from deep inside the stacks to the library’s administrative offices. In true secret society fashion, the notebook was quickly and anonymously claimed, leaving the library staff to wonder what else was hiding in the library’s dense stacks.
And what else was hiding? Tobacco pipes, bottles of cheap booze, and a “letterboxing logbook” are just a few of the unusual items discovered during the inventory. The letterboxing stamp shown above, entitled “The Papers of Thomas Jefferson,” is known as a rarity among the letterboxing community and holds the prestigious blue diamond status on atlasquest.com. For years this stamp has drawn searchers to the historic library.