mizarchivist

All libraries & archives have the problem of not enough space. Just ask NARA. Anyway, we are dealing with several issues at work.
The original circulating collection was never properly cataloged. Many items have one catalog number for shelves, and sometimes ranges. If you're lucky, you'll get a cutter number.
The shelf list was never completed. It started in the 1920s-30s, and the stuff that came before was never back-cataloged.
We did not have a collection policy until the previous head librarian made there be one in the 1970s.

make sure each item is accounted for in our new online catalog and that items that do not fit our mission are removed. This means...

Recataloging stuff that was done badly or not specifically enough
Going through item by item on periodicals, pamphlets, and non-main stream published books by ourselves. Those standard published we can have done by outside sources, but we still have to go through and put in our own specific information (location and such) on those. It does go a lot faster when the others do the grunt work. But sending out means big bucks.
Identifying all items (often not in the new catalog yet) that are being deaccessioned,
Putting them into a database and
Finding a new home for them. Better World Books and Brattle Books being top contenders, but we still have maps and periodicals that are too specialized that need to go elsewhere.
Relocating mis-cataloged items before or after they've been put into the system
Integrating swaths of books that had to go into overflow ranges on other floors because there wasn't room without moving entire ranges.
Shifting to allow expansion for the choke points and reducing the barren areas, of which there are thankfully many and more to come with the ongoing discards.
Catalog all the books in the rare book room, some of which would qualify as quite common.
Moving all non-rare items from the rare book room and either having a special section in the stacks for them, or reintegrating into the "circulating" collection. Everything over 35 years old does not circulate unless we have many (more than 2-3) copies of said book.
Consolidating the archive collections that have taken root in the main stacks
Moving some collections that were in the stacks into the rare book room once the non-rare stuff is out
Identify the sections closest to weeded and cataloged and see if they are near any of the biggest choke point
All this to make room for the new archive material that must come in this year.

Look! Job security! The final point was determined during the weekly meeting this morning. There will be a list of what needs to be done posted. We will elaborate on that and then hopefully assign people to tasks as need be. But mostly it's slogging through. Did I mention recently how many people work here? 5 full time employees, including our boss, whose job does not include making any of the above listed go. Of the remaining 4, 2 are fully trained librarians, 1 is as good as if not better than a professional, and one is entirely a paraprofessional. We also have 1 part time admin assistant, who mostly can't help with the above mentioned, 1 PT cataloger with a degree, 1 PT student cataloger, 2 volunteers and whatever interns we may or may not get from Simmons. Aie!