After consultation with affected departments and the Academic Senate, the UCI Libraries have developed a plan for rearranging collections in the Langson Library to provide room for near-term collections growth. We will be implementing this plan during the 2014 calendar year, and will provide regular updates on the progress. To minimize disruption, the majority of the work will take place in Summer 2014, although some minor movement and shifting will occur earlier. At the end of the project, call numbers in the Langson Library will be arranged as follows:
- Basement: A-B (General Works, Philosophy, Psychology, Religion), Oversize, Bound Journals, OC/ Cal Gov Info
- 1st Floor: C-DS 200 (History, History of the Americas, portions of World History), East Asian Collection, Reference.
- 3rd Floor: DS 300-L (portions of World History, Geography, Social Sciences Political Science, Law, Education)
- 4th Floor: M-Z (Music, Fine Arts, Language & Literature, Photography, Bibliography/Library Science/Information Resources)
Find the most current location information for our materials.
Background
Over the last several years, the Langson Library reached and exceeded its operational capacity to house collections. Shelving in the Langson Library is filled to 110% capacity and an increasing number of portable carts and other temporary solutions have been used as overflow space for books. However, these are only short-term solutions that are not scalable alternatives to fixed shelving because they make some books hard to locate, create obstacles in the aisles, and potentially displace study seats.
While digital materials are increasing in importance, monograph collections have continued to grow and will do so for the foreseeable future, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. Therefore, in order to house existing collections efficiently and create near-term growth space, the UCI Libraries reconfigured the Langson 1st floor (the floor below the lobby level) to accommodate a significant amount of additional shelving.
With the completion of the Langson 1st Floor reconfiguration, it is now necessary to shift collections throughout the building to efficiently use the new shelving. The following goals guided our decision regarding how to complete this realignment of collections:
- Maximizing the use of available space for collections
- Alleviating overcrowding in book stacks while keeping as many materials on-site as possible
- Providing room for projected near-term growth of collections
- Maintaining a logical call number sequence to facilitate location of materials
- Keeping related subject areas on the same floor wherever possible
- Taking faculty and student browsing patterns and preferences into account
The above plan meets these goals by providing a small amount of space on each shelf on each floor to accommodate growth and to facilitate management of existing collections. This will allow us to keep more materials on site and to eliminate the need for book carts to house overflow material while retaining a linear flow of call numbers from floor to floor.
If you have questions about this project, please contact Dana Peterman, Acting Head of Collection Development (dpeterma@uci.edu, or 949-824-0607)