It snowed yesterday afternoon and they canceled school today. Twelve month employees were on a two hour delay, so I went in later this morning even though I didn’t have to. I took advantage of the building being open and went down to the library unseen. From there, I was able to get quite a bit done in peace. I can’t remember the last time I went that long without being interrupted or was that productive. The amount of work I managed to get done today was astounding.
Charlie Brown sniffing the air as we investigate the snowflakes that are falling. 
Charlie Brown with snow on his nose!
I have talked a lot about my five year plan for the library. I am in year 2 of this 5 year plan. It has taken a long time to get to the point where I feel like I am making headway, but I am finally there.
With my school being the product of two schools coming together, the call numbers from the two schools didn’t match up. I started last year with the fiction, changing the call numbers and relabeling. That meant I moved around a lot of books, but nowhere near as many as I had to move today.
I have done picture books and nonfiction books bit by bit in my relabeling and shifting around. After talking with Alex, my IT guy who should have been an interior designer, we moved my desk last week and changed the layout of some things. He also walked me through how to adjust the shelves on some of my bookcases. I had tried before but struggled forever and I was worried I would break something.
Armed with this new knowledge, I started piling up books on the floor so I could adjust shelves. I wanted all of my picture books to be able to stand upright, instead of looking like the photos below.
Leaning books turned sideways so they will fit. 
Messy looking shelves.
With making this change, I’m losing the ability to put books on the bottom shelves. Depending on how much space I am left with, I think I could stack some of our infrequently used reference books down there. I will have to see how it shakes out.
Books standing up straight 
The shelves are a little crowded here, but once I finish the process of relabeling and moving things around, I’ll be able to shift my shelves so I have the extra space that I need to allow room for growth (and book hunting)!
I think this is going to make shelving so much easier. I’m looking forward to putting things away now and getting it organized. I also am looking forward to improving my signs in the library. I didn’t put up any signs this school year (I know, I know) because I knew I was going to be relabeling and doing so much shifting.
I was ready to go this afternoon at 2:30 when the janitor was kicking me out. Alex and Linda (another technician) showed up to do a few things. We stayed since Alex could set the alarm when we left. It was good to catch up with him and Linda, who I don’t see that often. We were able to talk about a lot of the issues that were going on in the library and technology world. It’s nice to be able to speak with people who “get it” sometimes.
Of course, I left much to be done on Monday. Sometimes organizing makes a big mess, which is something that I have been contending with for a while. I’m hoping that I can get it straight soon and we can keep trucking. I have really worked hard the past couple of weeks to get things clean and tidy. I think rearranging the library with Alex has helped me get some motivation because it really does look better.