Library Relocation Services
For over 50 years, libraries have trusted Meyer to relocate their collections with care, precision, and complete visibility.
Why Choose Meyer for Your Library Relocations?
A library is decades of careful organization, and a single relocation puts all of it in motion at once. Meyer gives public, private, and academic libraries one partner for the entire move, accountable for your collection’s integrity from start to finish, so nothing is lost, damaged, or misplaced throughout the process.
That accountability is backed by more than 50 years serving the logistical needs of some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions, including successfully completed projects for Yale, Duke, Boston University, Sacred Heart University, Boston Public Library, Marquette University, and Northeastern University. Whatever the size or complexity of your collection, your library gets one team that owns the project end to end and returns your library to the shelf exactly as it left.
Over the decades, our services have grown well beyond the move itself to cover nearly anything a library may need during a transition, including:
- Re-classification
- Space planning and layout for interim library space
- Selection of material for offsite storage
- Physical weeding
- Barcoding
- Cataloging
- Inventory
- Cleaning
- Interfiling
- Shelf reading
- Opening day collection installation
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Complete Library Relocation Solutions
Library Relocation Project Management
Every Meyer library relocation runs through one dedicated project manager who is with you from the first planning meeting to the last volume reshelved. The work starts with an on-site consultation to ensure a complete understanding of your needs and priorities: collections are meticulously measured, shelving layouts and capacities verified, and a detailed mapping process completed. The timeline is customized to your specific scheduling requirements, and this becomes the basis for our proposed, formal, phase-by-phase project plan.
The plan covers sequence, labor allocation, productivity metrics, equipment, materials, interim storage if required – structured into the shortest possible timeline for cost efficiency and minimal downtime. It all lives on MeyerConnect so your team can follow productivity, packing, transit, and reshelving status in real time. With more than 50 years moving public, private, and academic libraries, Meyer plans around the realities of an active institution — reduced-access windows, term breaks, and the precise order your collection must be returned to the shelf.
Collection Sequencing
During the planning phase, Meyer calculates shelf-fill percentages for each collection based on allocated shelf space and provides a detailed mapping plan for the library’s review and approval. Before we move the first book, we will be able to pinpoint the location of every book in the new library down to the shelf level. This enables us to move your library within the shortest possible time frame while providing the flexibility we need when unexpected situations arise.
We label carts using a simple labeling system which indicates the reshelving sequence. Templates are used to maintain a uniform, predetermined shelf fill percentage for each collection.
All of these measures protect order and access. Whether you are moving library books across a campus or relocating an entire collection to a new building, the order you leave with is the order you arrive with, and MeyerConnect offers enhanced tracking so library staff can confirm the location of all material throughout the moving process.
Packing & Specialized Handling
Library collections vary widely, and Meyer packs them accordingly. Depending on logistics, circulating collections move on sequenced book trucks or in containers sized to keep weight manageable and materials protected. Customized containers and methodologies are selected for rare books, manuscripts, oversized folios, maps, microform, and media, with materials — acid-free tissue, cotton tape, bubble wrap, acid-free board, and similar supplies — chosen based on condition.
Containers can be sealed or security-taped to prevent tampering in transit, materials can be logged as they’re loaded onto trucks, and — for rare, high-value, or archival collections — trucks can be locked and escorted to ensure a flawless chain of custody.
Library Shelving & Stack Relocation
A library move is rarely just the books. Meyer’s crews disassemble, transport, and reinstall library shelving, including cantilever stacks, four-post, and high-density mobile and compact systems. Where you’re reusing existing shelving, we plan the dismantling and installation so the new layout is ready to receive the collection in order.
As experienced library shelving movers, we coordinate the shelving and the collection on one schedule, so stacks are standing and leveled before the matching ranges of books arrive. That granular mapping of collections and sequencing is what lets reshelving begin immediately, instead of waiting on installation to finish.
Transportation & Logistics
Meyer moves your collection on its own GPS-tracked fleet, with crews who load and unload in the order the reshelving plan calls for. Trucks are loaded so the first ranges off the truck are the first ranges back on the shelf, which keeps the receiving end moving and reduces the staging space you need at the new site.
For multi-phase moves, transit status is updated on MeyerConnect so you can see which collections are on the road, what has been delivered, and what is staged for the next phase.
Why Libraries Choose Meyer
Behind every Meyer relocation is a team that has done this before — planners who map your collection to the shelf, crews who move it with care, and a system that lets you watch it happen in real time.
That’s what more than 50 years of library moves has built: not just a process, but a team libraries trust with their most valuable asset.
50+ Years of Library Moves
Specialized Relocation Teams
MeyerConnect Visibility
Nationwide, Asset-Based Network
Climate-Controlled Depository Storage
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