Three libraries to consolidate in one new home

Jon Sender

The three health sciences libraries on the UW–Madison campus — Middleton Health Sciences, Power Pharmaceutical and Weston Clinical Sciences Center — will close their doors Monday, May 29, and temporarily stop providing almost all services as they move to consolidate under one roof.

On Monday, June 21, they will open for business in their new home, the Ebling Library, the centerpiece of the soon-to-be-completed Health Sciences Learning Center adjacent to UW Hospital and Clinics.

Preparations to combine three staffs of 50 people and three collections of more than 330,000 volumes began more than two years ago.

Staff recognized from the outset that consolidating the journal collections would take the largest amount of work, involving many of the staff in all three libraries, says Sylvia Contreras, assistant library director.

The staff created a plan to eliminate duplicate journals and books, assess the need for preservation and repair of items in the collections, and reclassify and process materials. “We’ve had to find homes for the duplicate materials, most of which have been donated to other libraries across the United States,” says Contreras.

In addition, a committee was formed to create a clutter eradication plan to assist staff in minimizing the transfer of unnecessary material. “We’re librarians, and while we thrive on organization and systems, many of us have a tendency to hang on to things,” Contreras says.

With that in mind, the libraries used a less-than-traditional approach to organizing the move: Marla Cilley’s FlyLady system. The system aims to develop routines that help people get de-cluttered and better organized, Contreras explains.

The libraries’ plan incorporated the FlyLady process into a “Kiss It Goodbye” campaign, which included a clear policy to help people determine which materials should be kept. The plan broke tasks down into manageable sections, or physical zones.

“Once a day, for 15 minutes at a time, everyone concentrated on one of their zones. This could be a work area, like an office, or even a desk or drawer,” Contreras says. “Like the FlyLady says, you can do almost anything for 15 minutes.”

Units were assigned a “weeding representative” to assist staff with sorting, archiving and recycling.

Contreras says that the system has helped with teambuilding and is fun. “We had timers, and throughout the day, you could hear alarms buzzing and ringing. We gave rewards when a zone was finished. We had contests at staff meetings for the most unusual things found.”

The process, now winding down, resulted in the removal of more than 2,500 pounds of books, journals and files, as well as the identification and planned removal of dated furniture and equipment.

“Wonderful new skills of office organization have been learned in the process,” Contreras adds.

While the libraries are closed, there will be no access to the journal and book collections, although electronic journals and databases will continue to be available. Staff members will be minimally accessible via the library’s e-mail reference service at askhslib@library.wisc.edu and voice mail at 262-2020.