San Diego Central Library's moving daze

Now that the new downtown library is almost finished and preparing to open in July, moving day is just around the corner. This being the city, of course, a contractor is required. Based on a request for proposals from movers, the task appears daunting: “Provide a moving plan that includes consultant services, pre-move planning, move schedule, supervision, staffing, working hours, establishing waypoints for the purpose of interfiling and merging the materials from the basements with the main collection, collection mapping including and identifying shelf allocation and growth space calculations, tagging the collection, labeling, packing, transporting, unpacking, removal and disposal of packing material, final item by item interfiling and merging of the Central Library’s collections, daily clean-up, and project close-out.”

The request continues: “In addition to the estimated 1.2 million books in the Central Library collection, audiobooks, video recordings, and music, the Library has collections in cabinets, including atlases, maps, microforms, patent CDs, music CDs, and picture files. These cabinets will need to be moved as well. New shelving will already be installed at the new facility, so this request for proposal does not include the moving of shelving.” No cost is estimated; bids are due January 29.