Library Storage Facilities: From Planning to Construction to Operation

Library Storage Facilities

From Planning to Construction to Operation

Wyoma Vanduinkerken

Wendi Arant Kaspar

Paula Sullenger

Texas A&M University Libraries, College Station, TX, United States

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Chandos Information Professional Series

Copyright

Introduction

Section 1. Consideration and Planning

Introduction

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

1.1. Types of Storage Facilities

1.2. Storage Facilities in Practice

Chapter 2. Planning Strategically for a Storage Facility

2.1. Defining the Need and Making the Case for Proposed Concept

2.2. Environmental Scan

2.3. Identifying Partners and Stakeholders

2.4. Building Collaborations and Communication

2.5. Scoping the Project

2.6. Navigating the Bureaucracy, Approvals, and Funding

Section 2. Building the Storage Facility

Introduction

Chapter 3. An Introduction to Construction Methods, Project Management, and Building a Project Team

3.1. Project Delivery Systems

Appendix 3.1

Chapter 4. Design and Construction of a Storage Facility Building

4.1. Repurposing a Building

4.2. Constructing a New Storage Facility Building

4.3. Project Site

4.4. Building Areas

4.5. Receiving Room

4.6. Interlibrary Loan Room

4.7. Materials Processing Room

4.8. Break Room

4.9. Stacks Area

4.10. Heating, Ventilation, and Air-Conditioning

4.11. Fire Suppression

4.12. Security

4.13. Inspections, Punch Lists, and Meeting Objectives

4.14. Grand Opening

Section 3. Preparing for Operations

Introduction

Chapter 5. Selecting Equipment, Software, and Hardware to Support Operations

5.1. Shelving and Equipment

5.2. Archival Software

5.3. Union Catalog

5.4. Furniture

5.5. Barcodes and Labels

5.6. Printers

5.7. Printer Software

5.8. Barcode Scanners

5.9. Order Pickers

5.10. Pallet Jacks

Appendix 5.1

Appendix 5.2

Chapter 6. Staffing the Storage Facility: Organization, Positions, Hiring, and Training

6.1. Framing Staff Responsibilities at the Transferring Library

6.2. Staffing the Remote Storage Facility

6.3. Other Organizational Considerations

Appendix 6.1

Chapter 7. Collection Management: Decisions and Selection for Remote Storage

7.1. Storage Facility Options

7.2. Collection Management and Remote Storage

7.3. Communications With Stakeholders

7.4. Shared Storage Holdings

7.5. Duplication in Storage facilities

Section 4. Transferring and Receiving Materials

Introduction

Chapter 8. Moving Collections: The Process From Retrieval to Shipping

8.1. Staffing for the Project

8.2. Making Preparations for Transferring Materials: Space and Supply Requirements

8.3. Processing Items for Transfer to Remote Storage

8.4. Verifying Suitability for Remote Storage

8.5. Retrieval of Materials from the Stacks

8.6. Updating Cataloging Records

8.7. Shipping Materials to the Storage Facility

Appendix 8.1—List Structures for Sending Material to the Joint Library Facility

Appendix 8.2 Guidelines for Shipping and Delivery

Appendix 8.3 Transfer Processes Recommendations for Materials Going to the Joint Library Facility

Chapter 9. Receiving Materials and Workflow at Storage Facility

9.1. Preprocessing Materials Into the Storage Facility

9.2. Buying, Storing, and Building Trays

9.3. Materials Arriving Into the Storage Facility

9.4. Processing Items in a Storage Facility

9.5. Accessioning

9.6. Shelving

Appendix 9.1

Section 5. Sustain Operations

Introduction

Chapter 10. Sustainability and Safety of the Facility: Materials, Personnel, and the Institution

10.1. Environmental Conditions

10.2. Fire Suppression and Prevention

10.3. Emergency Exits

10.4. Maintaining the Library Materials

10.5. Security

10.6. Disaster Planning

Chapter 11. Access to and Delivery of Requested Materials

11.1. Interlibrary Loan

11.2. Reading Room With Reference Services

11.3. Other Potential Services

11.4. Secondary Site for Computer Files and Systems’ Backup

11.5. Planning for the Unexpected

Chapter 12. Reporting Effectiveness, Return on Investment, and Preparing for Future Growth

12.1. Statistics and Reporting

12.2. Assessing Operational Effectiveness and Efficiency

12.3. Troubleshooting

12.4. Reporting Return on Investment

12.5. Considering Growth

12.6. Marketing and Building Support

12.7. Conclusion

Section 6. Case Studies

Chapter 13. Case Studies

13.1. Case Study 1

13.2. Case Study 2

Index

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Copyright

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Introduction

Over the past few years, institutions of higher education and academic libraries have seen change that is both profound and continuous. Colleges and universities are responding to demands to be more accountable and responsive to their community’s needs driven largely by technology. The shift to electronic platforms as a primary mode of information delivery has changed the research and information needs of clientele and the ways in which libraries provide for them. In spite of this trend, one sought-after resource is, surprisingly, physical space on campuses. While colleges and universities are expanding in the online arena, they are also expanding their institutions physically with new innovation spaces and efforts to accommodate a growing on-site population as well. Research and academic libraries are not exempt from this trend. Many not only want to repurpose their own spaces but also find themselves in defense of their existing footprint when so many other on-campus programs and initiatives are vying for more of their own. Despite the move toward digital-preferred collection development, many libraries continue to struggle with the space requirements to store their print collections and strive to meet the demand for more interactive, innovative, and collaborative library spaces. Wood and Walther (2000) believed that as libraries need to focus their attention away from the historic ownership of information but rather toward access to and management of information.¹ This movement would allow libraries to create the space needed to accommodate the demands of their users and provide space for information commons.

However, Heath reports that the flow of printed resources continues unabated with no end in sight and, as a result, academic libraries, such as the University of Texas—Austin, continue to add as many as 200,000 print volumes annually, which creates a shelving demand of almost 10,000  square feet of library space a year.² This persistence in collecting print resources is not unusual, whether to continue to provide access to materials that are not online, which is true of materials for more interdisciplinary, specialized or niche programs or to sustain the commitment to archival access for future generations. There are academic programs where print and hard copy is desirable, particularly in literary criticism, historical analysis, or fields that study the book as an artifact.

Not all items are available electronically and sometimes the cost of acquiring electronic access outweighs the cost of getting the item in print, particularly if the electronic access is based on a license and annual fee. According to Hughes, despite the mass digitization efforts by companies, such as Google, libraries and publishers are not uniformly attempting to digitize all print materials and the initial targets are around 12%–15% of the estimated 65M titles in print.³ Hughes’ research shows that the emphasis of digitization programs in libraries focuses on popular items instead of research material, and the material located in archival collections is essentially ignored. In addition, legal constraints such as copyright and licensing also affect what can and cannot be digitized. Ultimately, what this means is that libraries will continue to purchase print, therefore adding material to their already overcrowded bookshelves. This is contradictory to the belief of patrons, university administrators, and local government officials that all books, articles, and knowledge in general are available or will soon be available on the internet.

Adding to this stacks space crisis is the continual decrease in the use of print material and the increase in demand by library patrons to have the library utilize its space for reasons other than storing low-use print items. Although the needs for the use of the library space varies depending on the nature and purpose of the library itself (i.e., academic, public, and school), there are a number of general space trends seen in all libraries. In particular, librarians are experiencing an increasing demand to house technology labs, multimedia rooms, group and individual study rooms, cafés, and learning commons. Library patrons are not the only people requesting libraries to reorganize their space. University administrators are beginning to reclaim space within the library for administrative offices, student services, research initiatives, or other purposes not related to library functions. This is creating additional space constraints within traditional brick-and-mortar libraries.

Despite the fact that space is at a premium, there continues to be reluctance among the governing bodies of libraries and their parent institutions to alleviate the bookstacks crisis by funding construction of new buildings or additions to existing library buildings. The reason for this reluctance is twofold. Most libraries, particularly in highly populated areas, are land locked with no space to grow or build. The second reason is cost. If there is room to build in highly populated areas, the cost for constructing a new building or extending the library building is often too high to justify. As a result, many libraries, particularly academic libraries, are turning to off-site storage facilities as a solution to alleviate the issues of overcrowded stacks and demand for more study space.

A major reason libraries are considering off-site storage facilities is that the construction costs are significantly lower than building in the campus proper, if such coveted space can be identified. Even in their own spaces, many libraries are making the tradeoff between existing bookstacks and the creation of new, spectacular interactive spaces. Murray-Rust (2011) found that the cost per volume for construction is $3.75 for a high-density facility versus $13.39 for a standard on campus library construction. Off-site storage not only addresses the shortage of building space in populous areas in cities or on campuses but it also provides a viable alternative to the high cost of building a traditional library.⁴ CHEMS Consulting echoed the cost savings of shelving material in high-density storage facilities versus traditional library stacks. In a study conducted at the University of Melbourne, the firm determined that the cost of retaining a low-use item in the main library at the University of Melbourne was 4 times greater than relegation to storage.⁵

But the cost savings for building an off-site storage facility versus a traditional library is not the only advantage: the cost of storing an item in an off-site storage facility is also cheaper when compared with traditional library stacks. According to Courant and Nielson, the cost of storing a book each year on a traditional library shelf costs $4.26 but this annual cost decreases to $0.86 to house the same item in a high-density off-site storage facility.⁶ One can see that the advantages of off-site storage facilities and how they can substantially reduce long-term costs.

There are, however, disadvantages to sending items to an off-site storage facility. One of the primary concerns is reduced access to already low-use items. It is likely that limiting immediate access to these items and the ability to discover them through browsing will reduce their usage even further. However, a number of studies have indicated that the use of material being housed in off-site storage facilities has been steadily increasing and it is believed that these usages will continually increase.⁷

Organization and Content

The foundation of this monograph will rest on five distinct sections: consideration of and planning for a remote storage facility; building and specifications of remote storage facilities; preparing for operations by defining workflow, staffing, policies, and processes; transferring collections with a breakdown of regular operations and collection management; and lastly, sustain operations and preparing for future operations and growth.

The first section will provide background and focus on identifying the need for an off-site remote storage building, planning, and approval. Chapter 1 will begin by briefly discussing the history of library storage facilities and then turning its attention to the types of library storage facilities found across the United States today. It will highlight the institutional, shared, and regional repositories, what they are, the differences between them and their advantages and disadvantages when choosing which type to build. Chapter 2 will provide guidance for scoping the project and moving through the approval and planning processes.

The second section will focus on the steps and planning once the decision has been made to build a storage facility. Chapter 3 will look at project delivery systems, phases of a construction project and members of the project team so that the library will understand how construction projects are managed and flow. This chapter will consider key issues when writing the request for proposal and what to look for and what to ask during the interviews when hiring an architect to design the building and construction company that will actually build the facility. Chapter 4 will examine some starting points to consider when constructing a new storage facility or repurposing a building to store material and will highlight best practices of building a storage facility. It will consider topics such as new construction versus repurposing another building, humidity control and temperature requirements, fire suppression and the importance of understanding fire codes and how they impact the physical layout of the building, along with security, safety, and morale issues of having a handful of employees working at a remote site away from the main library building. A significant portion of this chapter will examine the options of shelving units that can be utilized in the facility. Specifically it will emphasize robotic, mobile, and stand-alone shelving systems and how their layout, height, depth, and weight when filled with material impact the physical building.

The third section of this manuscript will address preparing for operating a remote storage facility. Chapter 5 will examine the technology, both hardware and software, needed to operate storage facilities along with the workflow and staffing models needed to operate the day-to-day processes of the facility. It will also discuss the archival software products available to these facilities and highlight the advantages and disadvantages of using the library’s current catalog or a homegrown software system versus a stand-alone archival software product used in the market today. This chapter will also highlight the traditional hardware needed to run archival software products. It will stress the importance of addressing questions about the need to union catalog and direct/or indirect interlibrary loan, both of which will directly affect access to the users. Chapter 6 will move beyond the technology needs of the facility and will focus on the workflow and the knowledge base needs of the individuals working in the facility. This chapter will promote the importance of teamwork, individual ingenuity, and the need for flexibility and a can do attitude. Unlike traditional libraries rarely a storage facility manager will have the luxury of assigning one employee to only work on one task. For example, a person who processes material in the storage facility will also be assigned to shelve the books and help out with interlibrary loan. This type of cross-functional work environment will impact the facility’s staffing model and the very nature of employee that will be needed when hiring for any position within this facility. This chapter will also highlight critical workflow and processing needs that will be significantly different than what traditional libraries currently use. Chapter 6 will build on the previous 2 chapters as staffing is dependent on the systems and the defined workflow. It examines the staffing needs related to operating a remote storage facility, from job analysis, identification of necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities and defining position descriptions to effectively hiring, training, and managing staff. Chapter 7 will investigate the policies and establishment of the attendant processes needed for effectively operating a remote storage facility. Chapter 8 will also focus on collection management of libraries who are sending items to storage facilities. It will specifically look at best practices on how libraries are choosing material or should be choosing items to send to storage facilities. This chapter will discuss the merit of sending print and nonprint material, the integrity of the material and its condition. The chapter will end by reviewing best practices when making collection management decision.

The fourth section of this book will focus on the materials going to an off-site storage facility and will be made up of two chapters, which will examine the core operations of remote storage facilities. Chapter 8 will focus on transferring and moving items from libraries to storage facilities and will consider the best practices for moving these items. Issues, such as boxing items, insuring, and transporting item, may seem simple but far too often they are overlooked and are often considered after a disaster happens. The chapter will also discuss the intense work load added to subject selectors, technical services, preservation, and shelving units as they struggle to prepare materials for storage. The chapter will then turn its attention to human factors of material relocation. Specifically, far too often emotions get in the way and librarians, along with patrons they serve, struggle to let low-use items be relocated in off-site storage facilities. Their fear often comes from the lack of immediate access to the material once it arrives at the off-site facility. This fear often leads to a slowing down of the material selection process. This chapter will highlight best practices using the service leadership model to aid these librarians and patrons through this emotionally heightened times. Chapter 9 will address the transfer of materials on the receiving side, focusing on the remote storage facility, and examining specialized processes and systems. The transfer of collections can be complex and problematic as it is often where two distinct organizations intersect and their disparate policies and processes may not precisely correspond, requiring more oversight and reconciliation. The ongoing transaction and transfer of materials between two, or more, organizations also necessitates clear and constant communication.

The final section addresses how to sustain the remote storage facility and position for the future. The Chapter 10 of this section will focus on sustainability and safety in storage facilities. This section will not only focus on the humidity and temperature requirements of storage facilities but also the archival trays, tray and shelving labels, markers, and barcodes all of which affect the longevity and integrity of the material. Chapter 11 looks at access. While the assumption with storage facilities is that access to materials is not its primary mission, there may need to be clear policies and processes around lending materials or providing access to them through document delivery. With collaborative agreements, this is critical as there may be multiple stakeholders from a variety of organizations making demands. Chapter 12 provides guidance about reporting and assessment of operations; with the potential for so many collaborating organizations, being able to collect data about operations and effectiveness and report back to various stakeholders is to be expected. Chapter 12 will also provide some guidance on planning for the future, how to position the remote storage facility to meet future demands or directions.

Through the book, there will be case studies, as seen in Chapter 13, and vignettes that will provide a real-world perspective on various aspects, situations, or roles addressed in the text. One that will look at the joint collaboration between the University of Texas—Austin and Texas A&M University shared storage facility in Austin Texas and the issues that arose around that facility. It will highlight workflow processes to help libraries see what was done and what they could do to avoid some of the pitfalls that arose. A second case study will look at the second joint storage facility that the University of Texas—Austin and Texas A&M University–College Station built in Bryan, Texas. After identifying the problems that arose with the Austin facility, the second case study shows how the shared storage facility in Bryan was built to address those original issues. These case studies will help the reader identify and understand possible issues that might arise when operating a shared storage facility. In addition to cases, each chapter will also include a Tool Kit with checklists, sample policy statements and administrative documents, and workflows and procedures among other helpful addenda. This study will conclude with discussion of questions to ask and issues to think about in moving forward.

References

1. Wood P.A, Walther J.H. The future of academic libraries: changing formats and changing delivery. The Bottom Line. 2000;13(4):173–182.

2. Heath F.M. The University of Texas: looking forward: research libraries in the 21st century. Journal of Library Administration. 2009;49(3):311–324.

3. Hughes B. Why digitization increases the value of print collections. 2007 Paper presented at the CAVAL Seminar Wagging the long tail: managing print collections in a digital age, held on 3 May 2007, viewed 12/15/2015. http://www.caval.edu.au/assets/files/Research_and_Advocacy/Wagging_the_Long_Tail/Hughes.pdf.

4. Murray-Rust C. High density storage for libraries. 2011 Available at:. www.orbiscascade.org/index/rlsc-library-storage.

5. Fielden J, Harris C, Hayes H, Schofield A. Optimising storage and access in UK research libraries: a study for the CURL and the British library. New Review of Academic Librarianship. 2005;11(2):97–152.

6. Courant P.N, Nielsen M. On the cost of keeping a book. The idea of order: transforming research collections for 21st century scholarship. 2010:81–105.

7. Reilly Jr. , Bernard F. Developing print repositories: models for shared preservation and access. Managing economic challenges. Council on Library and Information Resources; 2003 1755 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036.

Payne L. Library storage facilities and the future of print collections in North America. Dublin, OH: OCLC Programs and Research; 2007.

Seaman S. Collaborative collection management in a high-density storage facility. College and Research Libraries. 2005;66(1):20–27.

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