Packing the library

Today was a long anticipated day for those of us who are preparing the library for the voyage. This was the day that we packed all the books and videos that had been ordered and received for the upcoming voyage. Most of the titles came from faculty course syllabi for reserve readings. Library acquisitions staff placed the orders, catalogers created bibliographic records, other staff processed the materials, and at the end, Mary Johnston, Barbie Selby, Kelly Johnston and I had a packing party. It wasn't really a party, but it had a festive feeling as it brought me one step closer to the voyage.

Part of the packing process was to label the reserve readings with the faculty member's name. So, those of us who had worked with the course materials would pick up a title and try to guess the faculty member who was going to use it. A book on sharks was obviously Abel and a book of architecture was Crisman. Some were not as obvious, but when we looked them up, they were a good reminder of the class and professor. Just a little librarian party game.

We broke the party up in the middle to take a quick trip down Main St to the Amtrak station where we greeted Donna Tolson, the Fall librarian and her husband Tim, the IT guy for the voyage. They had decide to take the train back from San Diego, and they were as tickled to see us as we were to see them. Thanks to Donna for weeding out obsolete materials to make room for our books.

At the end of the day, we had 17 boxes of books to be shipped. Well, they weren't all books. I included some giveaways to use for library promotions on the ship like candy and t-shirts. I'll see these items again when I get on the ship in San Diego on January 13.