Paul Dunn (left) and Nham Vu, who work in O’Neill Library’s “Approval Room,” unpacking newly acquired books.

Book drop

Chris Conroy, associate university librarian for collection services, O’Neill Library:

“The “Approval Room” is the first stop in the acquisitions process. We usually receive 175 to 250 new books each week. Bibliographers review the shipments and the books are catalogued, and then placed on the shelves. The acquisition department has 13 staff members, and the process of moving a book from box to shelf can take up to two weeks. Over Christmas, when the library is closed and the staff is on vacation, the volume can backup. On the day after we returned from being closed for about a week, we opened 22 bags of mail filled with journals, periodicals, office correspondence, newspapers, and books.”