Books make move to new quarters during holiday break

Imagine a row of books stretching from UBC to Boundary Road, a total of 16.5 kilometres. Now imagine moving them to a new home, making sure they arrive in exactly the same order so they can be methodically shelved. That's exactly what will happen later this month as the UBC Library moves 500,000 books--the largest transfer of books ever undertaken in its history--from Main Library to the Walter C. Koerner Library.

The books will move into the newly renovated Sedgewick space, which is now part of the Koerner Library.

Some library services will be interrupted or unavailable during the move, which begins Dec. 20 and should be completed on Jan. 6.

Among the collections moving to Koerner are: active humanities and social sciences serials, post-1978 materials for subjects in humanities and social sciences, all Canadian history and literature, all English language and literature, all anthropology, all classical studies and archaeology, all French literature, all librarianship, and all reference materials for humanities, social sciences and government publications.

Services on the move include humanities and social sciences reference, government publications reference, microforms division, data library, interlibrary loans staff, library cards, fine payment and other borrower services.

Remaining in Main Library are: Fine Arts library (including course reserve), Science and Engineering Division and collections, Map Library, Special Collections and University Archives, older research materials in humanities and social sciences, interlibrary loan services for science and engineering and fine arts users and the card catalogue.

Call the move hotline for the latest information at 822-3871.