We recently went on a mini book buying spree and then realized that we had nearly ran out of shelf space. Luckily, our custom shelving system is modular and easy to expand. The vertical spacers are welded and powder-coated steel fabricated by local metal dude, so we just had to go back and ask for four more pieces. The shelves are readily available plywood, that only requires 12 holes and a bit of sanding. So now we have 20% more space, and even with the new books added to the collection, there is more room for more shopping!
Also, as you may have already seen, I am in the process of digitally cataloging all these materials. It’s a slow process, but once done will make finding specific resources easier – and more importantly, this will allow us to publish the whole catalog online for everyone’s reference. The current status is that I’ve entered 320 books (accounting for 57,620 pages) till now. The bookshelves are divided into 15 sections, 7 of which are cataloged, 6 are still to go, and two are empty. One of these remaining sections will be relatively simple to do, the others will be more tedious. Of the remaining 5, 3 are type specimens – those will be extremely time consuming. The last two are either about, or written in, other languages and scripts, so they will also tougher to catalog.
