Teams at the Central Library have been preparing for the moving of Johnson Building second-floor collections and public service desks in order to be ready for the start of renovations in December 2013. As noted in earlier posts, Boston Public Library is working with the target of closing the second floor of the Johnson Building to the public in October of this year.

During the next few months, collections and service points currently on the second floor will be located to other spots in the Central Library. While it is clear that  a major renovation is not “business as usual,” it is our goal to provide the very best service we can during construction and to communicate changes in a timely fashion. We’ll strive to keep not only our maps and website updated, but also to be present for you, our users, and provide assistance in locating materials and navigating the building.

The library’s collection development team, the group that is responsible for ongoing management of Boston Public Library’s collections, continually evaluates the books and other materials that circulate (available for checkout to take home) throughout the Boston Public Library system, which includes the Central Library and 25 branches. With this particular construction project in mind, the team is devoting their thoughtful attention on materials currently in the Johnson Building. All materials will be reviewed and will be organized in to three general categories:

1. Books most in demand and with the highest use will be moved to the first floor
2. Nonfiction books that support historical reference or research or are used less frequently will be moved to the Johnson Building stacks or the City’s state-of-the-art Archival Center in West Roxbury. Books in the stacks or at the Archival Center can be requested, placed on hold, and checked out just as any other book can in the BPL system.
3. Books in poor physical condition – i.e., torn covers, pages missing – and those that are part of a large set of duplicates, will be removed from the collection.

Microtext and reference services will be moved from the second floor of the Johnson Building to new locations and will continue to provide public service during the construction and renovation period.

Books that leave Boston Public Library’s collection go through multiple steps. Dependent upon several factors, a book may be reviewed by friends of the library for friends’ book sales, selected by the Internet Archive’s Open Library program for potential digitization, given to an online company for possible sale, donated to literacy-based charitable organizations, or lastly, carefully recycled.

Redesigning the layout of the adult collections on the second floor in the Johnson Building will make the collections much more accessible and inviting to library users. The first phase of the Johnson Building Improvement Project calls for the fiction collection that is currently on the first floor to move up to the second floor and join the nonfiction collection.  A key part of the new layout will be grouping the adult collection into 5-6 themed zones on lower shelving in some areas to reduce the tunnel experience created by high stacks. Integrating better seating options and more display areas will create a more pleasant browsing experience.

The possible themed collections may include:

• Philosophy, Psychology, Religion
• History
• Politics and Law
• Education
• Literature and Fiction
• Science and Health

These collection groups vary in size, but each has a cohesive themed display to define its zone.

The images below show the possible layout for the adult fiction and nonfiction collections.  Your responses and suggestions are welcome. Please feel free to comment directly on this blog, send an email to compass@bpl.org, or send a letter to Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116.

Continuing with the goal of  improving visitors’ first impression of the Johnson Building, as noted in earlier posts, includes the initial experience as one enters the building. Another one of the big ideas that came out of conversations during the master planning process is the recommendation to remove the solid walls along the sides of the existing entrance lobby and to remove the mezzanine floor over what is currently the circulation area and the children’s room on the first floor.

The diagrams below depict a view of the first floor as it exists today and what it could look like should the interior walls be taken down and portions of the mezzanine floor be lifted out. The result would be a double-height space all the way across the front of the Johnson Building facing Boylston Street. What do you think of opening up the lobby in this manner?

The Boylston Lobby would become a place for orientation and where the library could interactively display content and information about programs and services. It might also be a place where an art or lighting installation would be possible. In the open area to the left of the Boylston Lobby would be a New Books area. The New Books area is envisioned as a place for readers, browsers, and visitors, where new and popular books, magazines, and newspapers would be readily available. Bringing books and library activity directly to the street, so to speak, is a tangible way to show what the building is all about and supports the project goal of enriching library services and user experience.