Winds of Change Blowing Through the Stacks at Cook Library
Starting today and continuing through July 31st, the stacks areas of Cook Library will see massive shifting of volumes and a new configuration of shelving of these materials. With the addition of the Baltimore Hebrew University Judaica Collection to be housed on the second floor of Cook Library, bound journals will now be classed with a LC call number and shelved under their respective numbers in the stacks.
Current loose copies of journals will still be kept in the Periodicals Reading Room on the 2nd floor of the library, but all bound volumes will now be found under their call numbers on floors 4 and 5 of the library. When you check on a print journal title’s availablility in the Cook Library catalog, a call number will display for bound volumes. For any issues needed beyond the current year, check under this number in the stacks areas. Stacks are divided with call numbers A – K on the 5th floor and L – Z on the 4th floor.
Furthermore, the stack areas will be shifted so that the collections are shelved from left to right. This means that the collections will be shelved on each floor with lowest numbers starting on the front left as you enter, progressing to the the highest numbers at the rear of the right side of the floor. Boy, does that sound confusing! The best way to remember this is that if you walk onto a floor from the main lobby the layout would resemble a sidways letter “S.” Still confused? I don’t blame you. Here is a diagram of how the new layout will work:
While this switcheroo of shelving takes place, there may be times where a book or score that you need may not be on the shelves. In the event you can’t find what you need, please email me, and I will get in touch with the two folks in charge of this project and make sure that your material is located. It also means that unless your favorite section is in the middle of the floor, you will have to re-orient yourself a bit: music will now be on the left side of the fourth floor, plays on right side, and dance materials will stay where they were in the middle of the fifth floor. Whew, I am as dizzy writing this post as I used to get when I square danced in my high school gym class. Now, do si do to your partner and promenade to the books on music therapy!
