The search began . . .

About a year ago, when Mobile Library Services was asked to vacate the building we had occupied for decades. It was lucky that we had a year to find alternate digs as it was surprisingly difficult to find a location that suited our needs: room for 5 large vehicles, 12' high bay doors, warehouse space for our collection of some 40,000 items and office space for 11 people.














We did find spaces: space that was too big (like the old Sam's Club in West Mifflin), space that just had been leased (like a location near Hays), space that needed too much remodeling (like a moving company building on the North Side), space that was too challenging to move vehicles in and out of (like a space in the Strip District). And each had it's appeal. The old Sam't Club was great for me - my hour commute would be down to 10 minutes. The Hays location was on a nice quiet street that was handy to all major roads. The moving company building had a fabulous garage and funky brick interior walls in the office area. The space in the Strip District, well it was in the Strip District!

We finally hit on two choices - one in North Versailles and one on Beaver Ave. After a long period of negotiation, the Beaver Ave. location was settled on and just in time. We had only a couple of months left to execute the move. We had thought ahead so that we would be ready when our new location was selected. We had engaged a moving service, one that had moved us a couple of years ago when the Alexander St. building had been remodeled, Fife Moving and Storage down in Washington PA. They were a great group of guys to work with, were experienced with moving libraries, and had done the job well. We got an estimate from them (gulp). We also found a used shelving dealer, Yankee Supply out in Rhode Island, that had sufficient shelving for our needs and had gotten an estimate (gulp again), just in case. The landlord at Alexander St. had intimated that we would be able to get shelving to replace the units we were currently using. We were moving from a location where the shelving was built in (attached to the ceiling and floor) to a site where the shelving had to be free-standing. So the move was on. Fife was called, a date was set, the staff was mobilized to start the packing process and we hit our first glitch. As the poet said: The best laid plans . . .



Picks of the day:
Book - The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns, by Robert Burns
Book - Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
Movie - Moving

Return to ACLA Mobile Library Services webpage

The journey begins . . .

Join me on this new journey I'm taking. I know where the journey is starting from - my cluttered desk at our new Mobile Library Services home on Beaver Ave.


I don't really have a destination in mind, so hopefully you will enjoy the journey. I tend to be a random thinker, so I will be jumping around alot, taking side trips, going where the spirit takes me, but in general, I will be focused on the bookmobile, libraries and the love of books, films and music. I'm going to start by sharing our moving adventure - and what an adventure it was and continues to be. I will be introducing our great bookmobile world - the folks that keep the bookmobiles on the road, the folks that work on the bookmobiles, the folks that work behind the scenes and the folks that come on board. And here and there I will be talking about books and movies. I hope to hear from you with questions, comments and suggestions (hey, be nice) and I welcome your ideas.

So, buckle your seatbelts and join me!

Picks of the day:
Book - Join Me, by Danny Wallace
Movie - All About Eve