Depository or Purgatory?

The project from hell has finally moved to another level of reality. Yesterday was the first of two big trips out the depository in Southborough, MA. Four of us went, hoping to make quick work of rebarcoding 900 boxes of music into a new account as deemed necessary by the head librarian at Harvard.

The place is hell and gone from anywhere, located on some vast amount of land owned by Harvard. As we turned into the driveway, there was a sign that indicated the primate research facility was the next driveway...hmmmm....wonder what goes on there?

Anyway, once inside the hallowed halls of the depository we were given a tour. There is a main room, where we would work, where sorting of materials occurs. This happens twice a day and involves about 1,000 books each time it happens. Then, with the press of a button, a portion of the wall slides away (seriously, it was like the bat cave), and the holdings are exposed. They are kept at about 40 degrees and 20 percent humidity. Film is kept at 20 degrees. The rows of books are about 50 feet long and probably easily 40 feet high. I crouched down to take the photo to try and get the perspective.

We decided the actual stacks are sort of like purgatory where books get held until it is decided they are needed on campus or they are discarded. The have these amazing cherry-picker like things that buzz around and move up and down so the picker can pull the book (not quite like anything celestial, but you know what I mean).

It was a long, dirty, tiring day, but everything basically worked the way I had planned and we got through a bit more than half of the boxes. The rest will be waiting for us when we return...