Imagine…packaging and labeling 26,000 catalogued library items in as much time as it takes to play four Little League games.
That feat was accomplished Monday when dozens showed up at the Tyrone-Snyder Public Library’s location on Logan Avenue to help clear the shelves, pack some boxes and begin the move to the new location just a block away. DelGrosso’s and the community donated hundreds of boxes and East End Pizza provided pizza for everyone at lunchtime.
“It was a total team effort,” said Judie Adams, the library’s assistant director and supervisor of Monday’s efforts. “It’s really hard to believe that we could get that much done in such little time, but we did. We’re hoping the rest of the move goes just as well.”
The task Monday was to not only pack all the books and everything in the Children’s Room downstairs, but also to pack all the books upstairs too. This included boxing each separate section of the library – reference, fiction, non-fiction, etc.
“We figured on about two days to get all that done,” said Adams, “but we finished in a little under six hours. We started at about 9:30 in the morning and finished up at about ten after six.”
Yesterday afternoon, Adams and Rita Shope, the library’s data entry clerk, were busy organizing boxes and placing numbers on them. The pair had already marked close to 120 boxes and said there are probably “four or five hundred more to go.”
She said Lynne Nearhoof, the library’s director, helped move the library to its current location in 1979. Nearhoof passed the idea to her assistant to mark each box with a specific color to match with a type of book, such as blue for reference. This, said Adams, makes the organization in the new building that much faster.
It worked.
“And it’s all thanks to all the wonderful people who helped out,” she said.
Adams was particularly happy to mention a group of teenage boys who stopped by to help lift some of the heavier things. She said she didn’t want to mention their names, but noted they planned to come back Friday and Saturday as the work continues.
“We’ll be loading everything up then,” said Adams.
Adams said DelGrosso’s has donated the use of a semi for the move and it will be parked on Logan Avenue in front of the library Friday morning.
“We want to get going at about nine,” said Adams. “If there are any hefty, strong people out there who want to help, please give us a call and let us know.”
The library can be reached at 684-1133.
Local Boy Scout Packs Troop 104 from Warriors Mark and Pete Kreckel’s group from St. Matthew’s also chipped in, arriving a week earlier to help dispose of not needed items in the library’s second floor.
A grand opening date for the new library has not been officially announced, but officials are anticipating an opening before April 1.
