From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2
By Robin Everly
When the August 2011 earthquake damaged the shelving in the
Botany-Horticulture library at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, the last thing on anyone’s mind was reorganizing
the entire 100,000 book and journal collection, plus modernizing the reading
room space. However, a year and a half later, this is exactly what has
happened.
During meetings with the Department of Botany, Smithsonian
Gardens, and Smithsonian Libraries, all parties decided this was an opportunity
to consolidate and merge several collections. Several meetings were held in the
fall of 2011 to discuss how to go about making this project a reality. Once the
18,000 books and journals, originally displaced by the earthquake, were brought
back to the library in early January 2012, plans were already underway to
prepare for two other major shifts of the collection. The first shift, occurred
over three days in June, and involved incorporating 2,000 books on ferns and
lichens and part of E. Yale Dawson’s donation of phycology books with the main
collection.
The second shift was an even more ambitious endeavor to
integrate the approximately 10,000 books and journals brought over in 2004 from
the former Horticulture Branch library when the historic Arts and Industries
Building was closed for renovations. These books were already in the library space
but shelved separately from the botany collection. This second project, which
occurred over a two week period in November, required every book in the library
to be moved, if only a shelf or two over. It also began the implementation of
the reading room redesign because before this collection shift could take
place, five stack ranges had to be permanently removed. Some of the stack space
was restored in other parts of the library, but for the most part, space once
designated for the collection was lost. During the planning process, decisions
had been made with the Department of Botany and Smithsonian Gardens what part
of the collection would be housed at an off-site facility in Landover,
Maryland. Throughout the three major collection moves and shifts, the
Botany-Horticulture library staff with the assistance of Natural History
Library staff, was able to keep library services going continuously. There were
some restrictions on library users being able to access the stacks themselves,
but service was provided in a timely manner.
In December 2012, the redesign of the reading room and staff
work areas began and was completed four months later. A team from Smithsonian
Design came up with an innovative plan to redesign the space. The space is now
user friendly for both museum and library staff, and library visitors. Before the
redesign, the stacks determined where new equipment was placed, often in any
available space, not necessarily based for convenience. Now, major items used
by staff such as the periodical display area, a library carrel with a computer,
a large table with chairs, the copier/scanner machinery, plus a new comfortable
seating area are all conveniently located near each other. There is also two
work spaces for library staff, where before there was only one for the
librarian. There are still two desks for quiet study away from the reading room
area. Wifi is also now accessible throughout the entire library.
The catalyst for all this change, an unusual natural
disaster for the Washington D.C. area, has truly been a silver lining and
opportunity for Smithsonian Libraries to improve services for the present and
future library users of the Botany-Horticulture library. With all the hard work
of moving collections and redesigning space behind us, this librarian plans to
come up with ways to promote the library and its wonderful collection in the
year ahead.
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