Andrew Porter Limited was appointed to load and store all books and shelving from UCLan's central library, Adelphi Street, Preston, during major refurbishment in 2009.
The 430,000 books and 14,000 metres of shelving were kept in Andrew Porter Limited's secure storage warehouse during the seven month project, in 6,500 crates.
Numerous project meetings were held with library staff and the main contractors during the pre-planning stage and a detailed packing, labelling and movement document was produced and approved. This document defined the correct procedures for the safe dismantling and re-erection of seven types of shelving.
The packing process was complicated through several of the book collections being dispersed over two floors of the existing library.
Additionally, the library stock was not all to be returned to the refurbished building, so several areas had to be defined and packed separately.
This required the entire two floors to be swept for stock on a shelf-by-shelf basis and packed accordingly, using the crate labelling system.
The temporary library facility relocated to the adjacent Arts Centre and this phase was completed over a working weekend and Bank Holiday Monday allowing students to access limited stock immediately prior to exams.
Using a phased approach, an area of shelving was cleared of stock, then a secondary Andrew Porter team came on-site to dismantle and take into store the entire shelving for two floors.
All crates including the Dewey sequence was input into the Andrew Porter Limited tracking system to allow UCLan the ability to retrieve any item in the event of an 'emergency' request.
Following the successful completion of the refurbishment the shelving was to be returned to a different layout and configuration and this required detailed and accurate working to architects' specifications and diagrams.
Book stock was returned to site on a collection-by-collection basis to allow library staff to re-scan and catalogue as it was returned. This process meant drawing together stock that had originated on the first and second floors and delivering it in the correct Dewey sequence.
Upon completion, the management openly acknowledge the assistance and support provided by the Andrew Porter Limited team.
