Library Moving in the Sacramento Valley

Most branches close to the public for the move, though the book drop often stays open a little longer. We pack in shelf-map order, starting with whatever part of the new building is ready first, often the children's area or the stacks rather than the front desk. When new ranges go in stages, we deliver only spans whose shelving the installer has released.

Books are heavy in bulk, so the route matters: loading doors, elevator size and rating, and floor protection from the dock to the stacks. A branch inside a city hall or county building books its dock through that building's facilities office, which may ask for our insurance certificate first. Summer library moves start early, before the lot and the truck bed heat up.

A fully loaded book truck is the fastest way to move a collection and the easiest way to spill one. Trucks travel shrink-wrapped around the load, coded on both ends, with no more books than their shelves hold flat. Atlases, art folios and oversize books lie flat in their own cartons, and cartons are filled spine-down or flat in a single layer so bindings do not bend.

Freestanding wood cases are emptied, padded and moved with their shelves and pegs bagged to the case. The local history room, microfilm and archive boxes are set apart for your collection lead to decide how they travel. At the new building, trucks wait beside their range in sequence, and staff reshelve and check each span against the map before the next group rolls in.