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Movers from Texas continue to shift UVSC's collection in time to meet the July 1 deadline The new Utah Valley University library has been the venue for media tours and a speech by the governor -- all without furniture or even a stair railing. Now as the building reaches completion, it's time to add the books -- a specialized task.
On Monday, workers touched up paint, installed video screens and wired computer hookups in a rush to meet the June 30 open house deadline -- the day before Utah Valley State College becomes UVU. A crew of 15 trained library movers transported UVSC's bound journal and reference collections from the old library, between the student center and computer sciences building, to the new Digital Learning Center. Over the past two to three weeks, library movers from Texas-based Library Design Systems Inc. have loaded UVSC's nearly 200,000 volumes onto specialized book cars, trucked them to the new library and placed them on the shelves, all while keeping everything in order according to the Library of Congress classification system. "Moving a library is a science. Books have to be maintained in order," said Robert Williams, president and project manager of Library Design Systems. "It is just a skill type of thing." UVSC spokeswoman Kim Chapman said moving the old library will cost the school about $50,000 including all the books, furniture, computers, map cases and special collections. Using a company that specializes in moving libraries has been helpful, said UVSC Library Director Mike Freeman. "They provide all the trucks, all the equipment and they're experienced," Freeman said. Williams said Library Design Systems Inc. is one of six or seven specialized library moving companies in the country. Without a specialized company Freeman said it would have taken more time to explain to movers where things should go and how libraries work. Williams said his movers are trained in both the Library of Congress system of cataloging books and the Dewey Decimal System. The old library is mostly empty now, with rows and rows of vacant shelves and few things left to move. "This is special collections. It has to be moved, but that area isn't even ready yet," Freeman said, pointing out the map racks. Students can still access the Internet in the old library, and it's still quiet. Students can request an item from the library's collection that has already been moved, and library employees retrieve them twice a day. The old space is squashed between several floors of UVSC's tiered campus. The new quarters will provide more space. Freeman said he's disappointed that a walk to the circulation desk or a trip to the food court will be a longer walk, but that's all he'll miss about the space. "Beyond that I'm not going to miss it much," Freeman said. Freeman said the movers have been on a tight schedule working one step ahead of the workers setting up shelves, who continued to finish assembling shelves once the books had been placed. Workers and movers will keep working on the building for the next week hoping to have it complete for a public open house June 30 and ribbon cutting July 1. "It will be pretty good by Tuesday," Freeman said. "I think you're going to be astounded by what's happening between then and now."
• Brittani Lusk can be reached at 344-2549 or at
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