Empty stacks in the library

The Firestone Library at the Princeton University is under renovation for several years now and it is halfway done. On its original 1949 building, it has two additions in 70s and 80s and the current renovation is for all the buildings, original and additions.

The renovation work is being done while the library is open and providing the service as usual. This means heavy and noisy works need to be done during the night and you can find the ear plugs at the reference desk. But more importantly, books and offices are constantly being moved from one swing space to another. My office has been moved once and there will be another temporary move before I will have my permanent office. But compare to other staffs who have moved for five or six times already since the renovation started, mine is nothing.

This morning, I found that the books shelved in front of my office are all gone, moved to another area in the library. I was also told that there will be other books from the floor below coming here next week while the floor becomes an active construction zone. They will stay here for a year and then this area will be renovated and they will be moved to another area who knows where.

This is a bad situation for our patrons(and library staff, too) to find the book. We try to update the map and other signs as quick as we can but it is a frustrating situation for many of our patrons. Hence we have the ‘Book Finders’, a person sitting in the stack area and help patrons to find the book so the Book Finder name comes. They are being updated with the most current book move schedule and know where the books are. Given their usefulness, we may keep the finders desk even after the renovation.

I admire our movers who move books from 9 to 5, every day, rolling heavy book carts. Although it is a tedious, mechanical work, it is a work that machines cannot do yet. Some books are already being moved several times from one floor to another or from one section to another. Since the renovation is half way done, now available swing spaces become smaller and smaller, meaning the move will happen more often.

Those empty stacks gave me a strange feeling. I felt abandoned alone in a strange space. I don’t know why but the empty stacks make me claustrophobic, claustrophobic of emptiness(hmm… does it make sense? or should I say loneliness?) People talk about the book-less library. Will it be this kind of feeling then, when you see a book-less library?

However the library is not just about the books. It is more about the people and the service it provides. What is the book anyway? I see the people inside the books, as Carlos Ruiz Zafón said “Every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it.” Maybe that explains why I am feeling lonely. So please don’t say, I want to become a librarian because I love reading and love the books. — writing after reviewing the ALA scholarship applications.