Reorganization

The Rosenthall library organization: Notes and Updates.

Volunteer info, Notes, Main Issues Facts, Lists

IMPORTANT INFO: 1. The library reorganization is now complete.
-Books are stored by Library of Congress call numbers.
- A few (without call numbers) are stored alphabetically by author in a seperate section.
- Info about circa 4000 books is available via MUSE
- Lists of remaining books are being updated to include call numbers. This will take some time.
- A search engine for the Edward Rosenthall Library will be available soon. Thanks to all the following people for volunteering (info current at Monday morning)!

Time\Day	ThursdayDONE: Built extra shelves Sorted and shelved: everything up to QA 177. Sorted: nearly 1/2 of entire collection	FridayDONE: Sorted and shelved: everything up to QA 330. Effectively RESHELVED: 1/2 of library collection Locally sorted: entire collection of catalogued books	Saturday: DONE: 1. Sorted and reshelved ENTIRE book collection which have call numbers 2. Sorted and reshelved all books without call numbers alphabetical by author) 3. Identified books with call numbers not on Muse: 1/4 of collection.	Sunday Identified all books with call numbers, not on Muse (nearly 5000!) Began process of generating searchable database.
Morning	Nilima Nigam Dani Wise Monique Lemire Michael Barr Vittorio Addona (10-12) Ying Han Frederic Laliberte Alexander Ivrii	K. GowriSankaran Monique Lemire Frederic Laliberte Nilima Nigam David Wolfson Robert Vermes	Eyal Goren Ying Han Yongjun Gao Heather (Finn) Julian and Tina Wolfson Robert Vermes Nilima Nigam	Georg Schmidt Tatiana Marquez-Lago Ratnadha Nilima Nigam
Afternoon	Robert Vermes Prof. and Mrs. Barr Vittorio Addona Olivier Dubois Diedre Maher Monique Lemire Masoud Asgharian Bheki Gwamanda Juan Perez Ying Han Albert Kim Nilima Nigam	Bogdan Nica Olivier Dubois David Gomez-Ullate Niky Kamran Frederic Laliberte Nils Lehmann Monique Lemire Jesse McKeown Russell Steele Robert Vermes Nilima Nigam	Heather (Finn) John Labute Ying Han Yongjun Gao Albert Kim Melanie Beck David Gomez-Ullate Julian Wolfson Nilima Nigam Robert Vermes	Ying Han Georg Schmidt Tatiana Marquez-Lago David Gomez-Ullate Ratnadha Alexander Ivrii Nilima Nigam

Information for Volunteers:

Come to the Library- on the weekend/Friday you may need to use your keys
This may be a dusty job!
Pizza and beverages will be available for the volunteers.

Thursday Morning

Create sorting area (requires some furniture moving)
Remove books from 4 shelving units (books are heavy! we have two trolleys)
Set up sorting area
Start sorting

Thursday Afternoon

Based on progress with sorting:
Remove books from next 4 shelving units
Continue sorting
By mid-afternoon, start reshelving AG6-Q111, QA1 to QA8

Friday Morning

Based on progress with sorting:
Reshelve QA9- QA76
Remove books from next 6 shelves
Continue sorting

Further notes based on progress by Friday 1 pm.
Friday Evening- what's done?

Have reshelved everything upto and including QA 330.
14 racks need to be emptied, but this is conservative estimate- many are empty already.
Within each unemptied rack, shelves are already sorted, making the further sorting easier
We lost a couple of hours on Thursday, but recovered well, and are now ahead of schedule by 4-5 hours.

Saturday morning + afternoon

Remove books from next 14 shelving units
Sort QA 331- QA 443.
Organize sorting s.t. QA 331-400 can be reshelved before 1 pm.
If we have enough people, sort and reshelve all remaining books

Sunday Based on progress on Saturday, either spend day sorting+ reshelving, or complete process of alphabetically sorting uncatalogued books, and identifying books without call numbers.

Sunday morning and afternoon

Team 1: go through re-shelved books, identify which ones are not on Muse

Team 2: Based on list from Maths department, record call numbers for books not on Muse.

Notes:

1. Lecture Notes (Mathematics and Statistics) will not be moved from their current location.

2. Journals will not be moved from their current location.

3. Rare and old books will not be moved from their current location.

4. Most of the books on reserve will be reintegrated with the rest of the collection.

5. Books without a call number will be shelved in a seperate section, alphabetically by author.

6. A few comments re the call number system:
The first number after a letter or letters is a whole number,
e.g. QA76.6
The second number after the (second) letter is actually a decimal even
though it is not so indicated, e.g. QA76.6 A255. Thus the correct order
will be QA76.6 A255 followed by QA76.6 A26

7. Guide to call numbers:

QA

9-10.3	Mathematical logic
75.5-76.95	Computer Science and Electronic data processing
101-141.8	Elementary Mathematics/Arithmetic
150-272	Algebra (incl. game theory and machine learning)
273-274.76	Probability
276-280	Math. Statistics (incl. statistical inference and fundamentals of statistics)
297-299.4	Numerical Analysis
299.6-433	Analysis (incl. analytical methods for physical problems)
440-699	Geometry
611-614.97	Topology
801-939	Analytical Mechanics

Main Issues:

1. Number of books on Muse = approx. 4/7 total number of books
Fix: Use Muse information as a guideline, not to be taken as gospel truth

2. List of books from Muse contains Call Number info, that from Math doesn't.
Fix: Slow, careful sorting of books.

3. Allocating space by call number ahead of time is difficult.
Fix: allocate proportionately based on Muse list. Eg: if 30% of books are QA1-QA20, allocate 30% of space.

4. Rare books- should these be stored by call number as well?

5. Books on reserve- which ones to keep on reserve?

6. Many books have a call number, but are not on Muse. Should we be updating the Muse list as we go along?

7. Storage of books without call number.
Fix: Store alphabetically on 2 racks.

Facts: Over 9000 books according to Math database.
Shelving: 33'' wide shelves.
7 shelves per rack.
Based on current storage: books cram-packed on 175 shelves.
If average no. of books / shelf=33, total we need to move/sort is 5775 + stuff from reference.
   15 shelves free
Need to reserve min. 14 shelves for books without call numbers.
Based on Muse list: (numbers are approximate!)

Call Number No. of books Approx. shelf space Percent books
Prior to QA1 77 2.5                        2.2%
QA1-8 260 8 7.7%
QA9-10.4 64 2                                    2%
QA75.5-77 31 1                                    0.9%
QA 150-272     647 30 19.26%
QA 273-275 215 7 6.4%
QA 276-280 295 9 8.8%
QA297-299.4 35 1 1%
QA299.6-433 824 25 24.5%
QA440-699 533   16 15.8
QA801-939 50 1.5 1.5
QB 5 0
QC 94 3 2.8
After QC 95 3 2.8
Misc. 100 3 3
Total 3358

Lists: (csv format)

Lecture Notes in Mathematics: (Based on list from Muse)
Lecture Notes in Statistics: (Based on list from Muse)
Rare/Old books: (Based on personal survey and list from Muse)
Remaining book collection, based on Muse list.