Special Collections and Integrated Digital Services: New Digs!

Much like the universe, Langsdale Library is expanding!  Two departments have relocated to the second floor of H. Mebane Turner Learning Commons: Special Collections and Integrated Digital Services.

2048: it's not just for squares

Can you beat this score? Probably.

The sliding tile game, 2048, has been all the rage in social media since it was introduced by the Italian programmer Gabriele Cirulli in March. Just for fun, here’s a special customized Langsdale Library version of 2048, using images instead of those geeky numeric tiles. We've found that this game works best in the Google Chrome browser. Have a dynamite summer, and be sure to visit Langsdale in its new space on the third floor of Learning Commons!

Where's Langsdale?

On the left is is portrait of R. Loran Langsdale, for whom Langsdale Library is named. He has been peering out over the circulation desk in Langsdale Library for years. But now that we are operating on the 3rd and 4th floor of the Learning Commons, it is hard to know where everything is. So where is this portrait now?  And more importantly, where are all of the books, DVDs, staff, computers and study spaces. Rest assured that we have taken everything with us, but if you ask where something is, many of the staff haven't become fully used to our new surroundings, so it may take a little while longer than usual to answer. So here is a quick, albeit not comprehensive guide, guide to where things are in our new location:

Pardon Our Dust

Our third floor move.

So it's finally happening: Langsdale is--right now, as I type--moving. Our shelves are slowly being emptied of their books, office dust bunnies and lost, favorite pens revealed as the movers move file cabinets and bookshelves. Traffic jams of moving boxes and carts of books in uninterrupted streams to the elevator. It can be a hassle. Trying to get to the bathroom on the 3rd floor feels like you've been placed in a giant game of Frogger, while the 2nd floor is like a ghost town.

It's somewhat shocking to see it all actually happening, but exciting, nonetheless.

And as I'm sure you could intuit from the description above, our resources are going to be limited the next couple of days. The 2nd and 3rd floors are closed to the public--the first floor will remain open today and tomorrow--and book loans are currently on hold.

We will open in our new location on May 27th at
noon, but please be patient with us while we get ourselves back together in the Learning Commons. We're moving as fast as we can, and hope to be ready to serve students and staff during the summer semester.

Langsdale Piloting Book Delivery Drones During Move

Helicam Cinestar8 Octocopter testing
by Ville Hyvönen on flickr

Sometime between the end of the spring semester and the beginning of the summer, Langsdale Library will be moving to a temporary home on the third and fourth floors of the Learning Commons. The library staff, books and computers will remain there while the current library building undergoes a renovation. One of the challenges we face is how to move all of the books. While Langsdale has been getting more and more electronic resources, including ebooks, we still have many of the hard copy variety that need to be transported across the street. As anyone who has ever tried to cross Maryland Avenue during rush hour knows, there is a fair amount of traffic between the Library and the Learning Commons, and it’s not like you can run across the street carrying several boxes of books. So what is a library to do?

The answer: book delivery drones.

In order to ensure the well-being of all the books, the library will be piloting the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to lift the books to a height of about 60 feet above street level in order to fly them across the street safely above traffic.

An Australian textbook rental company called Zookal has already started using similar drones to deliver books and Amazon recently made news with plans for a “Prime Air” service that will also use drones for delivery. Drones, like the ones Amazon proposes to use, have been dubbed octocopters because they have 8 small helicopter-like rotors affixed to the top in order to ensure stability as the books are being transported. And now Langsdale Library will be using a fleet of octocopters to transport the books to our temporary home in the Learning Commons.

The plan is not without its critics. Unfortunately the fleet of octocopters really only consists of two of them. Since they can only carry a few books at once, it is going to delay the time it will take to move books over to the new location. Instead of having all of the books in the Learning Commons at the beginning of the summer semester, current estimates are that the last of the books won’t make it across the street until sometime in October. Library Director Lucy Holman said the trade-off was worth it. “I had been waking up in a cold sweat and having nightmares about boxes full of books being run over by tractor trailers with Sesame Street Live logos as they pull up to the Lyric. Now, at least I can sleep at night”.

In addition, part of the plan to make the use of these drones more efficient, was to drill a hole in the top of the Learning Commons and make a shaft through which the books could be delivered directly to the 4th floor of the library in the new building. Unfortunately, the contractors keep rescheduling the construction for Tuesdays, and there has been too much snow on the roof literally every single Tuesday since Thanksgiving. Since we now expect it to snow pretty much every week until June, it may take a little bit longer to get the books in the Learning Commons this way.

Although plans can change between today, April 1, and the time the actual move begins around Memorial Day, the staff at Langsdale looks forward to seeing everyone on the 3rd and 4th floor of the Learning Commons starting this summer.


[UPDATE 4/2/14: April Fool's!]

Documenting our Move

As mentioned in the latest issue of the UB Post and our previous blog post, Langsdale Library is moving into the 3rd and 4th floors of the Learning Commons while our current building is remodeled.

Photo credit: Catherine Johnson, University of Baltimore

It takes a lot to move a library! We've got thousands of books, a little over one hundred computers, and lots of desks, tables, chairs, dry erase boards, and printers. We're planning to document behind-the-scenes happenings on our Instagram account using the hashtag #LangsdaleMove.

Photo credit: Instagram user @langsdalelibrary

Starting in March, each week (and sometimes more than once a week) we'll be snapping pictures of what departments are doing to get ready, leading up to our move at the end of May, and through our unpacking phase in our new location this summer. Visit us on Instagram as we share our move!