Monday, July 7, 2008

After three days of guests and almost no flood related activities, it was very hard to get mentally back to work. My host, Engineer Librarian John Forys, gave me a tip on where to find great coffee — The T-spoons. Fortified, I tackled my close to 700 emails, hoping to get part of my work life back in order. At 9:58 AM we received word that we could begin moving back to the Main Library at 1PM. The move back will be spread out over 3-4 days. I was part of the first wave along with Conservation, Reformatting, Circulation, Media Services, InfoArcade, Administration office, PR, LIT Technical Support, Special Collections staff and a few students in these units.

We moved back while the barriers were still up. Our north entrance is still closed and will be closed for a while as the buildings to our immediate north are still being remediated. We had to enter by the south entrance and be checked in – no gate crashers allowed. It was very exciting. I felt a little bit like the March of the Penguins.

After moving back – which involved docking my laptop and turning it on – I listened to my 10 phone messages. Oops! I neglected to deal with my office phone while vacated from the Main Library. Then I headed out to our Oakdale site to see if we can improve the environment. I was greeted with a totally amazing sight of 10s of LPs and covers hanging to dry. Caitlin and Elizabeth are doing a great job of working through the Czech Slovak LP collection.

Still no solution for an improved environment. We decided to investigate upgrading the air conditioner filtering system with a HEPA filter, charcoal filter and pre-filter and setting up a small air scrubber. In the meantime I set out Starbrite anti odor/mold units. We’ll see if they reduce the smell.

Although I don’t feel stressed, I must be. I continue to be forgetful. I almost forgot to take the Starbrites with me and had to go back and get them. Then when I went to pick up my spouse after work, I took the wrong street and got lost.