Rough Seas

From 5/12/11

We are back on course now and we will be in rough weather for a while. Actually we are not rolling so much now as pitching. The Captain came about last night and put us in a follwing sea - with the 20+ swells we were taking heavy rolls. But, we didn't come about before the entire reference collection and most of the Gove collection came off their shelfs onto the deck. The metal books ends were not stong enough to keep the books from shifting and working their way loose. Surprising just how quick it all happened. The old bungie cords didn't have enough "twang" to hold the collective weight of the hardback books on the shelf - actually we had several bungies break under the strain.

The Non-fiction collection fared much better and we only dumped four shelves. I think this is because those shelves sit at more of an angle with the back sitting about two inches lower. The fiction collection dumped a few shelves too, but the book ends did a better job of keeping them in place and the bungees were not affected by the books' collective weight. The periodicals didn't budge at all.

We flipped a couple of the round tables too. There were six students in the library at the time and none were near the falling books or flipped tables. No students were injured in the library.

I should have the entire collection re-shelved and the shelves read by the end of the day. Also the computer lab printers are all down (the regimental Office's printers are not faring much better) - so the cadets are coming to me to do their printing. Its been about a dozen a day - and with Kimmey suggestion of using the R:\\ it's been successful about 90% of the time. Anyway it gets the kids in the library and I tell them to go look for a book while I do the formatting.

The Captain. First Mate, First Engineer along with the SWO have been great at helping me and providing bodies or materials as needed.

I'm smiling and this isn't anything I haven't been through before and it will all work out just fine.

Wow, that last wave put some air under the keel. Gotta go.

Mike ;-)