2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

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BEST PRACTICES 2012
The Combined Arms Research Library on Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a
consolidated facility that has two main missions. It is the academic library for the
Army’s Command and General Staff College (CGSC). It is also the public library for
the military families living on the Fort, civilian workers and retired military. The
CARL is housed in Eisenhower Hall, one of five buildings comprising the CGSC
campus.
The CARL holds more than 300,000 books and a large government documents
collection. One of our most active departments is the Archives, which collects
CGSC curriculum (1880-present). The Archives also gathers much historical
information on the installation and its tenants, such as the U.S. Disciplinary
Barracks and the various research and publishing activities on Fort Leavenworth.
Most of that material is, as you might expect, fragile, and is kept in a room that has
a separate HVAC system and is chilly enough to require a coat. The Archives also
drives our digitization program and populates the CARL Digital Library.
This spring the CARL Main, Archives and Document collections will be moved into a
commercial cave in Lenexa, about forty miles south. The CARL staff and selected
academic and post library material will be housed in temporary quarters located
across the street from our present building. We’ll be going from a 100,000 square
foot building to a 20,000 square foot building. It’s definitely a temporary building,
too, with exposed girders and cable runs, minimalist décor, and carpet remnants.
I’m calling it industrial chic.
Movement of the collections started in April. Completion of the project is scheduled
for March 2013. As the Library Director, I’m trying to balance the prime contractor,
the Army Corps of Engineers, the installation Department of Public Works, the
College academic departments, the increasingly stressed CARL staff, and the
professional library moving company subcontracted for the job. We’ve been
planning for a year and have a good set of blueprints, a solid construction schedule,
and a recurring desire to curl up into a fetal ball.
An architecture and design firm started the process, about a year ago. After
extensive talks, they delivered a set of design concepts which swiftly evolved into
blueprints. A team composed of myself, my deputy and a couple of branch
supervisors went over those plans, then staff at all levels had a chance to
comment. Eventually, the preliminary plans led to a construction contract through
the Corps of Engineers.