From now through December 2012 Penrose Library is undergoing renovation. Our materials will be in off-site remote storage – Hampden Center - and you won’t be able to come to Penrose Library to browse through our materials. But we can have the materials you want waiting for you when you come to our library. Just follow these steps.

1) First check Prospector to see if the materials are available for borrowing.  If so, we strongly recommend that you use Prospector to request.

2)  If the location of the material you need is Hampden Center, between now and July 1, the items are off-site.  After July 1, all materials will be off site at Hampden Center.  If the materials are in Hampden Center, follow the procedures described below.

3) Search our online catalog to determine the materials you need that are located in Hampden Center. Be sure to have important elements such as title, call number, and volumes/dates.

4) If you have already registered as a borrower with us, call our Circulation Desk at (303) 871-3707 to request. Our goal is to have the materials retrieved from the Hampden Center storage facility and ready for you in about 4 hours. If you don’t already have a borrowing relationship with Penrose Library, you will need to first come in to Penrose Library to establish a borrowing relationship.  This latter procedure may change in the future, so always call for the most up-to-date information.

5) Come to Penrose Library and use the materials!

The Collections

Penrose plans for moving out collections in anticipation of the renovation continue to progress as planned.  The first wave of materials moving in April went smoothly and movers will return in early June to begin the second and final phase of moving of books and other library collections.  Everything and everyone must be out of the Penrose Library building by July 12^th for construction to begin.

What’s notable about this process, and what is unprecedented as far as we know, is that Penrose is moving our collections without an interruption in access to materials!  Over the past few months, staff completed a full inventory, ensuring that each and every item in the collection has a barcode.  Now, as materials move, they can still be located and retrieved at any point in the moving process.

As our stacks maintenance manager, Andrew Miller, said recently, “This is unheard of, moving an entire library without ever limiting access to the materials.  Why are we doing it?  Because it’s the right thing to do.”  We feel strongly that maintaining access to important research and teaching materials for all campus members – many of whom will be taking classes, teaching, or doing research this summer during the peak of the moving period – is simply the right thing to do.  We are dedicated to providing top-quality service during this time and are literally working round-the-clock to do so.

To request items that have already moved to the Hampden Center, simply locate the item in the online catalog, click the Request It button in the item’s record and follow the steps.  The item will be retrieved for you, brought to Penrose within twenty-four hours, and you will receive an email letting you know that the item is ready for pick up.  More detailed instructions on using the Request it feature can be found here.

Requesting items online will be the only way to access physical library materials after around June 20^th, but by that point we will have ramped up to full capacity for deliveries so you can expect your items to be delivered to the Driscoll Ballroom, our temporary location, in two to four hours.

The Services

Just as we are dedicated to providing uninterrupted access to library materials during the renovation process, we are planning to continue library services without interruption as well.  There are many services located in the library and our plans include moving them to their temporary locations so that users can still access them throughout the process.

Timeline

As of this writing (5/17/11) we plan to move library services to their new locations beginning immediately after commencement June 4^th and to conclude by July 12^th.  We will post a timeline of these moves soon to the Academic Commons website FAQs and update campus through WebCentral emails.

We think you’ll agree that keeping library collections and services accessible throughout the renovation is “the right thing to do.”