Category Archives: Renovation

News and Features, Renovation, RL Photos

Moving the Rubenstein, in Pictures

Dear readers, did you enjoy your winter break? We did, too—but we were busy!

Since December 17th, we’ve been packing our offices, our reading room, our common workspaces—basically, everything that’s not a rare book or archival collection—and moved to our new digs on the 3rd floor of Perkins Library. This is where you’ll come to do research (and visit us!) during the renovation, which is currently slated for completion in the summer of 2015.

Now that we’re all settled into our new space, we’ll be spending the rest of January and the first half of February moving our collections from their current stacks locations to our 3rd floor Perkins stacks or to the Library Service Center. (Yes, you’ll still be able to visit and do research during this collections move. Visit our “FAQ for Researchers” to learn more about researching at the Rubenstein Library during the move period.)

Since we need all hands on deck to ensure that our collections are moved safely and securely, we’re going to be temporarily turning the blog into a photo diary of the move process. Check back a few times each week to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at a logistical process that’s been a couple of years in the making! (And the blog will return to its normal self on February 18th.)

And now, we present “What We Did Over Our Winter Vacation” by the Rubenstein Staff:

Our paper finding aids are packed and ready to go! What’s a finding aid?
Doughnuts increase packing efficiency. Especially when they're homemade salted caramel chocolate doughnuts.
Doughnuts increase packing efficiency. Especially when they’re homemade salted caramel chocolate doughnuts. We were surprised to find even one left when we arrived to take this photo.
3rd floor Perkins Reading Room, before the move.
3rd floor Perkins Reading Room, before the move.
3rd floor Perkins Reading Room, after the move.
3rd floor Perkins Reading Room, after the move. Looks like home!

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Events, News and Features, Renovation

Study Like It’s 1799

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Date: Monday, December 10th, 2012
Time: 1:00 PM to 12:00 AM
Location: Rare Book Room suite
Contact Information: Amy McDonald, amy.mcdonald(at)duke.edu

Need we remind you, dear busy students, that next Monday is the final Reading Day before exams begin? The Rubenstein Library is convening a very special study hall to help relieve at least the stress of finding a library studying space (you’re on your own for your chemistry final).

We’ll be opening the Biddle Rare Book Room’s double doors promptly at 1:00 PM and leaving them open until midnight. You’ll be able to read over your notes on our comfy couches, review your flashcards next to the Audubons, and finish up your final paper under the History of Medicine Collection’s ever-watchful glass eyeballs. The rooms were designed to look like the library of an 18th century English manor house, so yeah . . . study like it’s 1799. With wi-fi!

And it’s your chance to say “so long” to the Rare Book Room suite before it closes for renovation on December 17th. (Wondering what renovations will take place in the Rare Book Room suite? Check out our Rubenstein Renovation FAQ!) Rubenstein Library staff will also be around to answer questions about the renovation and what research at the Rubenstein Library will look like over the next few years.

Space will be available on a first-come, first-served basis, and no food or drink will be permitted (there ARE still rare books in the room’s bookcases, after all).

There might even be a pop quiz . . . .

Biddle Rare Book Room, ca. 1950s. Party hats not included.
Biddle Rare Book Room, ca. 1950s. Party hats not included.
News and Features, Renovation

Rubenstein Library Moving December 17th – January 6th

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Rubenstein Library Move Logo

Over the past year we’ve enveloped our books, trayed our books, used lots of post-it notes, and found many interesting things in the stacks, and now it’s time for us to get moving!

Between December 17th, 2012 and January 6th 2013 we will be closed while we relocate our workspaces and collections to our new space. We will reopen to the public on January 7, 2013 in our new temporary reading room: the third floor of Perkins Library!

Staff will have been relocated by January 7th, but our collections will be moving until February 17th, 2013. Access to collections and reference services will be limited while we finish moving them.

If you’re planning a research trip we strongly encourage you to come after February 17th.  If you just can’t wait and need to come between January 7, 2013 and February 17, 2013, please contact us at least four days before your visit so we can make sure we have the material you want to use.

We’ll miss you while we’re closed, but we’re excited to have you visit us in our new home!  If you have any questions about our move or the library renovation in general check out our Information for Researchers and Visitors and our Renovation FAQ, and if you still have lingering questions let us know.

Renovation, Technical Stuff

Take This Shelf and Hang It!

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As usual, things are really humming over here at Rubenstein Renovation HQ. We have been slowly shipping newspapers and manuscript collections to our offsite facility since the end of August. It’s been very exciting to watch our collections move offsite. We have been seeing quite a few empty shelves appear, which means we are making some real progress!

The Rubenstein Library has also officially taken occupancy of the 3rd floor of Perkins, our temporary library. Although we are not moving offices or the reading room until mid-late December, we are starting to move in some special shelving and hang it at the heights we require. For those of you who really obsess about this kind of thing (and who doesn’t??), most of the shelving in Perkins/Bostock is 9” wide. We have quite a few 11” shelves in the Rubenstein Library, and the extra space allows us to shelve our records cartons and document cases more efficiently than if we were using 9” shelving. We do not have a lot of space in our temporary location so any space advantage we can manage is key.

The shelf hanging process began this week! It is a tedious process, as you can imagine, but we have been moving quickly. Thanks especially to one of our student assistants who is actually a shelf whisperer!

For more information about the renovation, please visit our renovation website.

Post contributed by Molly Bragg, Collections Move Coordinator in Rubenstein Technical Services.

Renovation, Technical Stuff

Newspaper Superlatives

As they work their way through the Rubenstein’s basement, the holdings management staff have been nominating newspapers for superlatives. And the winners are…

The Journal of the Times — asserting its cuteness with a quarter for scale.

Post contributed by Jessica Janecki and the Holdings Management Team in Technical Services.

 

From Our Collections, Rare Books, Renovation

Renovation Round-Up

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It has been a busy summer here at Rubenstein Renovation HQ. With the help of the entire Rubenstein staff, we have prepared over 50,000 rare books for the move! These are books that have been reviewed and loaded into acid-free cardboard trays for safe transport to and storage at the Library Service Center.

We have made progress on the archival and manuscript collections front as well, and these collections are now almost 100% ready to move to our swing space and the LSC. Below, please find some highlights of some of the work being done:

  • Oversize Materials: 670 linear feet of oversize materials and flat files have been reviewed and re-packaged for long term storage.

    Archivists Meghan Lyon and Mary Samouelian prepare oversize folders for the move.
  • Ledger-mania: Our Conservation Lab has been working wonders on our extensive collection of ledgers. The bulk of this work has been completed. Our ledgers have never looked better! Read more about the ledgers project on the preservation department’s blog Preservation Underground.
  • Extra Extra!The Rubenstein Newspaper collection is getting enhanced catalog records, better housing and some much needed TLC in preparation for its journey and new life over at the LSC. This has been a multi-team undertaking led by the Rubenstein Print Materials Coordinator, her holdings management team, our colleagues at Perkins Technical Services, and of course the Perkins conservation team.

    Newspapers in new boxes, ready fto ship to the LSC
    Newspapers in new boxes, ready to ship to the LSC
  • Manuscript Box Stabilization: Many of our manuscript collections are housed in flat boxes. To keep things from needlessly shifting during transport we have padded boxes with what will forever be affectionately referred to as “burritos.” These are pieces of folder stock rolled into tubes and wrapped in tissue paper so they stay rolled. Here are the burritos in action.

    Flat manuscript box, padded and ready to move.
  • A new Rubenstein Renovation website is in the works! Stay tuned for an announcement about this site, it will be a one-stop shop for all your renovation news needs.

What’s Next?

We are beginning the home stretch of our move preparation efforts. Materials are starting to be shipped over to the Library Service Center in small but consistent batches now that the Center’s 3rd module is nearly online.

The bulk of our materials will be moving in January and early February 2013. This will be a very busy time at the Rubenstein, so if you are planning on visiting us during this time, please contact us so we can plan ahead for your visit. Don’t forget that the reading room will actually be closed December 17, 2012 – January 6, 2013 so we can move the reading room and our offices over to our temporary location on the 3rd floor of Perkins library. We look forward to welcoming you to swing space on January 7, 2013!

Post contributed by Molly Bragg, Collections Move Coordinator in the Rubenstein Technical Services Dept.

From Our Collections, History of Medicine, Just for Fun, Rare Books, Renovation

Feeling hot, hot, hot

Image

Happy Friday! Preparing for our upcoming renovation continues at the Rubenstein. This book’s title made us giggle, especially considering the high temperatures we’ve been facing lately in Durham. If you’d like to learn more about Spontaneous Combustion: A Literary Curiosity, you can check out the catalog record. It is a 1937 medical publication discussing cases of spontaneous combustion in literature.

For more photos of our favorite renovation discoveries, visit the Rubenstein’s Flickr page.

From Our Collections, Just for Fun, Renovation, Technical Stuff

Dispatches from the Newspaper Project

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One of our many renovation-related tasks involves re-foldering and re-boxing our fragile newspapers. The Rubenstein Library has thousands of American newspapers, dating from the Revolutionary War through the early twentieth century. Here is one of the highlights, from The Daily Express of Petersburg, Virginia, 1858 Dec.:

Part 1 of An Interesting Divorce Case: Beautiful Wife Prays to be Separated from Ugly Husband.
Part 2 of An Interesting Divorce Case features laundry, father-in-law insults, attempted poisoning, corn-and-beans throwing, dirty carpets, and Niagara Falls dunking.

Post contributed by Carrie Mills, Holdings Management Assistant in the Rubenstein Library’s Technical Services Dept.

Renovation, RL Photos, University Archives

Construction Begins on the Temporary Rubenstein Library

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Over the past few months, Perkins staff has been shifting books out of the 3rd floor of the library to make room for the Rubenstein Library to have a home away from home during the renovation. We will be opening our reading room on the 3rd floor of Perkins on January 7, 2013. This month, construction begins in earnest. When we go check on the space, we even have to bring hard hats and safety glasses — this is kind of a thrill for some of us! (Okay, maybe just me.)

The 3rd floor of Perkins, now a construction zone for the Rubenstein swing space.

Our temporary home will house our reading room as well as work spaces for our Research Services, Collection Development, and University Archives staff.  We will also to be able to keep a portion of our collections onsite during the renovation.

The future temporary home of the Rubenstein Library Reading Room.
Library bookshelves have been re-arranged to safely hold our large folios.

As our regular readers know, moving out of our current space is no easy task.  In addition to prepping the collections for the move, we also have to execute a safe and secure move in a short period of time with minimal impact on our researchers. We know we cannot do this without the help of professional movers, so we have been talking with and reviewing bids from various moving companies.

Back in 1969 when the library addition we now know as Perkins Library opened, the books were moved by fraternity brothers around campus. Some days I wish our move would be that simple. Although, after looking at the picture below of the 1969 move (from the Duke University Archives), I’m happy we will have the professionals involved.

Moving Day for Perkins Library books, 1969.

For more photographs of the Rubenstein renovation, visit the Library’s Flickr page.

Post contributed by Molly Bragg, Collections Move Coordinator in the Technical Services Dept.