Library Storage Facilities

From Planning to Construction to Operation

Wyoma van Duinkerken, Wendi Arant Kaspar, Paula Sullenger

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9780081027547
• eBook ISBN: 9780081027554
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Library Storage Facilities: From Planning to Construction to Operation examines high-density library storage facilities, considering how such facilities are changing the nature of collection management. The book discusses the types of storage facilities and explores how institutions can collaborate and embrace cost saving options through opening shared off-site storage facilities, addressing common needs, and maximizing value and space in on-campus libraries. Considering a unique partnership between the Texas A&M University System and the University of Texas System, the book highlights best practice and lessons learned during implementation. Topics covered include storage strategies, geometric efficiency, systems integration, environmental control, and more.- Provides insights on the importance of high-density library storage facilities- Lays out the process for funding, planning and building collaborations around storage facilities- Shows how to prepare a storage facility for operation in terms of staffing, workflow and equipment- Considers repurposing existing structures as a way of building a storage facility- Presents how to incorporate a storage facility into services and operations

Section 1

Consideration and Planning

Outline

Introduction

Chapter 1. An Introduction to Storage Facilities: Types and Examples

Chapter 2. Planning Strategically for a Storage Facility

Introduction

Libraries have long been referred to as storehouses of knowledge. It is expected that they will house the wealth of published information from academic treatises to government information to creative works and assure access to and preservation of all of it for the benefit of current and future generations.

With the sweeping changes that have stricken higher education, research and information, there are no competing priorities, with impetus for libraries to focus on hosting research activities as opposed to just being a warehouse for the research products themselves. This movement for libraries to provide areas for collaboration and multimedia creation, information commons, and innovations such as 3-D printing and gaming has subsumed the spaces that once held carefully selected and managed collections. Still, holding to the long-held mission for preservation of and access to information, libraries have sought solutions to safeguard their collections. In many cases, they come together for that shared purpose to assure the continued access to this carefully collected knowledge—through the construction of storage facilities.

Chapter 1

An Introduction to Storage Facilities

Types and Examples

Abstract

Library storage facilities provide an economical solution to the growing conflict between space and information access that institutions of higher education are facing all across the world. While there has been a renewed interest in storage facilities, they have been employed successfully in the United States and Europe for almost 100 years. The growing demand for easily accessible electronic resources does not negate the responsibility for libraries to ensure future access to physical materials that are not reliant on computer-mediated access. Depending on the specific requirements and the opportunities for collaboration, there are several options for storage facility models, providing a range of options in terms of shared funding, shared resources, and shared services.

Keywords

Collaborative facilities; Cooperative shared storage facilities; Institutional storage facilities; Regional storage facilities; Repository storage facilities

One of the most crucial issues that research libraries continue to face is related to the vast amount of printed volumes they purchase and the limited space that is available to house this material. Over time, shelves begin to fill and eventually there is no more room to house the mountain of books being purchased. Space for collections competes with study space and the footprint for library services. Historically, to alleviate this space crisis an academic library either constructs new additions to its existing building or if it is fortunate, it would be given permission to build a new departmental library located near the main library. Construction of departmental libraries allowed the main library to transfer subject collections from the main library to the departmental libraries creating must needed space. It was this additional construction that allowed libraries to circumvent transferring print collections to storage facilities, whether on-site or remote, for many years.

Throughout the 1920s library collections continued to grow at an alarming rate but luckily construction of new buildings or additions was able to keep up with the demand for new shelving space. However, ongoing construction of departmental libraries was not a viable option for most universities or colleges. University administrations and state legislatures began questioning the reasoning behind the need to continually build new library buildings to house print materials. Additionally, libraries faced budget constraints particularly during the 1930s and World War II and in conjunction with soaring building costs and increased congestion on academic campuses, building new libraries has become a less and less frequent occurance. Even during the largest building boom in library history (1967–74) book collections grew a little faster than the new space to hold them.¹ Consequently, by the 1980s and 1990s, many academic institutions around the world began to consider the off-site storage facility as the most feasible solution to their space crisis.

1.1. Types of Storage Facilities

Today, there are two different types of library storage facilities that are built in the United States: each is grounded in either the Harvard model or the automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) model. These two types of facilities may be either institutional and cooperative:

• 1. Institutional storage occurs when one library builds a storage unit, on or off an academic campus, to house its own material.
• 2. Cooperative (sometimes called shared) storage occurs when two or more libraries build a storage unit together to save money. However, there is no attempt by the two libraries to collaborate on what is placed in the storage unit, they just share the space. Within the cooperative model there are varying degrees of cooperation: collaborative, regional library center, and repository libraries:
• • a. Collaborative storage occurs when two or more libraries (not necessarily from the same university) build a storage unit together and agree on collection management policies, such as format and duplicates, for the material they will be placing in storage.
  • b. Regional library storage centers are storage units that have ongoing specialized collection development responsibility.
  • c. Repository library storage units occur when a group of libraries come together to place items in a storage unit but they transfer the ownership of the item to the repository storage unit.²

1.1.1. Institutional Storage Facilities

In 2007, of the 68 storage facilities in operation in the United States and Canada, 79% were classified as institutional. Libraries generally manage these storage facilities as another location or branch on their campus. Often the first items to grace the shelves of a storage unit are low-use monographs or print journal runs that are electronically available. One advantage to building this type of facility is that the individual library will have complete control of the building and its operations. The library has the comfort of knowing that once the item goes onto the shelves in the remote storage facility, it will remain there until the library wants the item to return to the main library.

One disadvantage of building an institutional storage facility is that libraries sometimes do not consider what other storage facilities in the region may already be holding. As a result, multiple copies of the same book may be stored in multiple storage facilities without considering the need or cost to house all these duplicates. A second disadvantage to an institutional storage facility is related to indirect interlibrary loan. Generally, institutional storage facilities may not have direct interlibrary loan but rather will receive requests via email as a third party through their home library. This can slow down the interlibrary loan process and cause delay in getting the item to the patron.

1.1.2. Cooperative Shared Storage Facilities

The remaining 21% of the 68 storage facilities operating in the United States and Canada in 2007 are classified as shared or cooperative storage facilities.³ Though multiple libraries may share storage, they often treat the facility like a secondary shelving space and do not work together to develop a single collection. The facility will end up housing duplicate copies of the same item.³ Although, shared facilities are initially more economical than individual institutional storage facilities, particularly for smaller institutions, they face many of the same issues that institutional facilities face with one very large exception; deselection or relocation of items back to the home library. This means a library could place an item into the storage facility and then remove it at any time, making it difficult for other storage participants to weed their own collection and rely on the copy placed into the storage facility. This was particularly relevant in storage facilities where participant libraries used the storage facilities as temporary shelving instead of long-term, low-use storage.

1.1.2.1. Collaborative Facility

When libraries take an additional step closer to a collaborative model and agree on collection management policies for the material being placed into a storage facility, they are now establishing what is known as a collaborative facility. Not only do collaborative facilities establish policies on the services the storage unit will offer to participating libraries and users but they also create policies related to the following:

1. • the scope of the subject materials that the facility will receive,
2. • in what circumstances duplicate titles are accepted,
3. • the condition of materials,
4. • the format or medium of materials, and
5. • circulation and access.

One problem surrounding collaborative facilities is that most libraries who participate in these types of storage units do not transfer ownership of the material to the storage facility but prefer to retain ownership for themselves. The legacy idea that the size of a library’s collection is equated with the “prestige” of the university, aka rankings, make contribute to this preference. As a result, shared ownership of the physical piece is often not considered and, despite duplication policies between the individual participating libraries, there remains the common practice of institutions contributing copies of ti...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Chandos Information Professional Series
• Copyright
• Introduction
• Section 1. Consideration and Planning
• Section 2. Building the Storage Facility
• Section 3. Preparing for Operations
• Section 4. Transferring and Receiving Materials
• Section 5. Sustain Operations
• Section 6. Case Studies
• Index