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INFOcus August
2007 www.LYPonline.com |
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Special Report |
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Running Out of Room By Mark Haubenschild
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Executive Summary The role of the campus
library is changing, and that change is affecting both the services offered
to students and faculty and the space available for collections. Libraries are no longer
simply places for research, browsing, study, and quiet contemplation. To
accommodate instructors’ requirements, students’ rising expectations and
changing information formats, libraries have added spaces such as video
viewing rooms, language labs, writing and tutoring centers, meeting rooms,
cafes and coffee shops. While all this happens,
acquisition rates remain steady, and collections continue to grow. The result
is that libraries are running out of room for traditional stacks. Efforts to
reduce collections by weeding and digitizing have had limited success and are
not feasible or desirable for many institutions. Adding space to the library
— even if funds are available — is often impossible because the buildings are
hemmed in at the centers of campuses. The result: Libraries must find
creative ways to store collections at reasonable cost, without compromising
service. A common approach to
the situation is to build storage space specifically for materials that are
requested infrequently. Other approaches include installing high-density
mobile shelving or automated storage and retrieval systems within the
library, or building/leasing large-scale, climate-controlled repositories off
site. Storage options in these facilities include fixed shelving systems,
mezzanines or Static High-Bay Storage systems (SHBS). Another option includes
an emerging concept that involves compact movable shelving systems (Mobile
High-Bay Storage). The latter substantially reduces the space required and
hence the size of the building. That in turn reduces construction costs and
substantially reduces the cost of heating, cooling and lighting (lifecycle
costs) for as long as the building stands. In short, space-starved
libraries must strike a balance between the need for more room and the need
to maintain a high level of service. Equally important is the goal to meet
overarching objectives of the institution, such as the desire for green
buildings and holding down costs. Without question, the issues are complex.
Ironically, education is the key. Toward that end, decision-makers will do
well to assess the issues — and gain an understanding for the breadth of
solutions used to effectively managing collections. Managing
Collections: An Ongoing Challenge As the world of digital
publishing expands, and as Google undertakes a massive project to digitize
virtually every book in existence, academic libraries still face the
challenge of managing growing collections — while shelving and storage space
becomes ever more constrained. Libraries in general
continue to grow and gain importance, and academic libraries in particular
are becoming critical centers of campus activity. The American Library
Association (ALA) reports that library use is up nationwide among all types
of library users, continuing a trend that has lasted a decade. Almost 1 .8
billion visitors checked out more than 2 billion items in 2006. Meanwhile, in academic
libraries, usage continues to increase despite growth in online Acquisitions at these
libraries continue unabated. As a consequence, many are running out of room
in older buildings hemmed in at the centers of college and university
campuses. In response, libraries are seeking cost effective ways to create
storage space for materials, especially those requested infrequently. Librarians have many
options for storing materials, within the library and off site. Their
challenge is to choose a combination of solutions that most effectively
control costs, protect the integrity of valuable material, support
high-quality service to library users, and contribute to larger
organizational goals, such as sustainable facility design and LEED
certification. Libraries: A Changing
Role There is more at work
on libraries’ space issues than the sheer size of book and periodical
collections. Above all, libraries need to focus on their users, and those
users today demand more services than ever. The number of users itself is
growing as College and University enrollments increase. The U.S. Department
of Education National Center for Education Statistics projects that overall
enrollments at degree-granting institutions will rise by 15 percent to 20
percent between 2002 and 2014. Those students, along with faculty members,
demand faster and greater access to services. Students increasingly see
themselves as customers and consumers, and they expect high-quality
facilities and services.ii Meanwhile, the
library’s role is changing. Thirty years ago, the measure of a library’s
service to its clients focused on the quality of the collections, as judged
by the number of volumes and depth of coverage, according to Information
Today, Inc. “Today. the answers to
quality and value questions are broader and relate to a more expansive role
for the library,” the report states. “Many academic libraries are in the
process of transforming themselves from passive service providers to active
and vital forces on campus.. .(T)oday’s academic library is a vibrant place
of change, discovery, learning and experimentation where students, scholars
and librarians are thriving.iii Clearly, campus
libraries are no longer simply places for studying, browsing, and quiet
contemplation. Users demand other kinds of spaces: meeting rooms for study or
discussion; study spaces with tables, electrical outlets and Internet
connectivity; spaces for quiet reading; and places to socialize, like cafes
and coffee shops. “Many libraries are
home to language labs, writing centers, and tutoring centers...” according to
a report from the Council on Library Information Resources (CLIR).
“Furthermore, as faculty members revise courses to include electronic
resources, students want enhanced space with group video-viewing rooms,
discussion areas, and ready access to computers.iv Other factors
that affect library space and services include: • Growth in enrollment
of older, non-traditional students. Beyond all this, in a
highly competitive marketplace, the quality of physical environments “Academic libraries
need to combine three different aspects: collection, place, and service,”
says Walt Crawford of Research Libraries Group in Mountain View, Calif. A
good physical collection, sufficient to meet almost all the immediate needs
of campus users and to support their long-term needs, is vital... “Academic libraries are
also places: places where students can study, places where new scholars
browse the journals in their area to gain breadth and depth, places where
librarians can offer personal reference service. As such, academic libraries
also tend to be statements: the quality, size and placement of a campus
central library says much about the institution.”v Tight Spaces, Tight
budgets All these demands on
space inevitably constrain the room available for collections. Ideally,
libraries would like to expand the buildings. In practice, that is difficult.
The library must compete with every other campus facility and department for
severely limited funds. Even if money is available, space to build often is
not. “On most college
campuses, the library is not the first building that was built, but it is
probably the third or fourth,” observes Michael Cohen, an architect and
library specialist with Elkus Manfredi Architects in Boston, Mass. “In
general, those libraries are in the center of the campus, where there is not
a great deal of room to grow.” One seemingly obvious
way to deal with collection space is to weed. Another is to digitize. In
practice, neither has shown much promise. For one, either solution is at best
temporary. Predictions that the digital world would reduce the volume of
print have not come true. “There is more material in print now than ever
before,” Cohen says. “College library acquisition rates are still as high as
they have ever been, and most collections are growing at the same rate they
always have.” In any case, experience
shows that weeding and digitizing do not reduce collections significantly.
Faculty members and librarians alike tend to resist large-scale weeding. St.
Xavier University in Chicago, which faced a severe space shortage, found
systematic weeding to be fraught with political problems. “A successful weeding
program requires very careful — and very time-consuming — cultivation of the
administration and faculty,” observes Mark A. Vargas, Director of the
University’s Bryne Memorial Library. “The sheer size of the stack space
problem meant that a successful weeding program needed to be on a scale so
much larger than ever attempted that the political fallout was not worth the
effort.”vi In 2003, Swarthmore
College librarians identified books in philosophy and religion as candidates
for weeding under a set of strict criteria. Preliminary response suggested
that the faculty would support weeding of about 35 percent of the items in
philosophy that met the criteria, and fewer than 10 percent of the items in
religion.”vii Another force against
weeding is a reaction to students’ reliance on the Internet for research,
Cohen observes. “When a student looks for a topic, a Google search brings up
a list of items, and first three are magazine articles that are not
first-source material,” he says. “The reaction — some would argue that it’s an
over-reaction — is for faculty to insist that students to do research with
first-source material. When that happens the library’s ability to weed
material is lessened.” Digitization has helped
free up library shelves, but not nearly enough to relieve the space problem.
The availability of journals in electronic form has created opportunities for
space savings. In 2002, the Swarthmore Science Library cancelled 48 print
journals in favor of online versions. That reduced the requirement for
shelving new volumes by 340 linear feet in the following year.”viii Saint Xavier University
replaced 50 journals with their online version, “but this saved only about
eight shelves per year, or enough room to hold approximately 200 volumes. A
number of reference print sources were also cancelled in favor of the
electronic versions, but the existing overcrowding in the reference
collection was so extensive that little room was saved.ix The digitizing of books
has been less effective. Whereas physical volumes allow readers to thumb
through and to locate material quickly by using the table of contents and
index, digitized books typically are not searchable and therefore are
cumbersome to use. The CLIR report states, “Currently the e-book shows its
greatest potential in the areas of reference and reserve readings. It has not
developed its full potential as a substitute for a print stack title that can
be read in the traditional manner.x Exploring Storage
Solutions If the collections must
stay, and if there is no way to add space, then there are two basic choices:
Fit the books into smaller space within the library, or move some of them
elsewhere. Many libraries have already exercised the first option by
installing High-Density Mobile Storage (HDMS) systems, which can double the
storage capacity of a given space when compared with conventional fixed
shelving. In this configuration,
also known as Compact Storage, shelving is mounted on wheeled carriages that
run on tracks. Individual carriages compact together, eliminating the need
for multiple aisles and so substantially reducing the space required. A user
moves the carriages to open the aisle in which a desired item resides, either
by using a crank mechanism (mechanical assist) or, more commonly, by pushing
buttons to activate powered units with redundant in aisle safety devices
(powered). However, library consultants have found that 50 to 90 percent of a
collection can be housed on this proven storage solution. As new services demand
more space, and as collections continue to grow, even compact storage may not
entirely solve the space problem. The next alternative then is to build
special storage for seldom-requested materials (secondary and tertiary
collections) that do not need to be in the stacks that library users browse.
Ideally, this storage is built within the library so that staff can retrieve
material on request and deliver it to users within a few minutes. There are
two basic on-site storage schemes. Static High-Bay
Storage (SHBS). In
this solution, materials are placed on fixed shelving units up to 15 feet
high in a dense configuration. Items are arranged by call number, minimizing
empty space between shelves. The solution applies to on-site library space,
as well as off-site facilities. “Many older libraries have high ceilings on
their main floors,” Cohen observes. “By building a small storage facility,
they can clear out a substantial amount of space elsewhere in the building.” Automated storage
and retrieval systems (ASRS). Some libraries have adapted technology used for
order-picking in large industrial and distribution warehouses. ASRS is a computerized system that
robotically retrieves material orders. items are stored in bins on specially
designed shelving. On receiving a request for an item, a librarian at a
workstation enters its identity to the computer, which directs a robotic arm
to retrieve the bin in which the item is stored. The arm delivers the bin to
the workstation, the librarian takes the item out, and the system returns the
bin to its assigned location. ASRS have space-saving
benefits — a system installed at Carolina State University stores material in
one-tenth the space required for open stacks. The systems pick requested
items with reasonable speed. At Chicago State University, for example,
students order items from the ASRS by logging on to the library web site. The
system takes about three minutes from the time the order is placed until the
book is delivered to the circulation desk for pickup.xi On a cost per-square-foot basis,
computerized ASRS is well suited for high-pick operations, such as those
found in the retail sector, and can be cost prohibitive for some academic
libraries. Moving Off-site Pioneered by Harvard
University in the mid-1980s, SHBS applies commercial warehousing principles
to library space and preservation issues. Environmental controls ensure
preservation of books and film while conserving space on campus for heavily
used collections and services.xii These facilities have
substantial construction costs, as well as long-term costs for staffing,
security, climate control, heating, cooling and lighting. Therefore,
libraries at institutions in a given area often form consortia to share a
facility and its expenses. One such consortium is
the Orbis Cascade Alliance, serving 33 member institutions in Oregon and Washington
with 207,000 full-time equivalent students. This private and public
collaboration stores 8.8 million titles. In 2006, 335,789 books, CDs, DVDs
and other items were borrowed by students, faculty and staff, an increase of
67 percent over the total before the alliance was formed. Requested items are
delivered in 24 to 48 hours. Another collaborative
arrangement is the Preservation and Access Service Center for Colorado
Academic Libraries (PASCAL), operated jointly by the University of Colorado
at Boulder, the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center, and the University of Denver. “By the mid-1990s, all
four libraries needed additional space, and all four were located in the
Denver metropolitan area,” reported Scott Seaman, associate director for
administrative services with the Norlin Library at the University of Colorado
at Boulder. “Each library cited examples of how shelving had been added to
its buildings, thus eliminating ever-greater amounts of student seating,”
Seaman said. “All four institutions
were experiencing the impact of changing classroom teaching practices that
necessitated more group and collaborative study spaces in libraries.” None of
the libraries had room to expand on campus. The PASCAL consortium
combines low-use materials from the four institutions in one collection that
gives regional users full access through a combined catalog. Items circulate
under a single set of loan policies. “An online catalog record for each item
informs patrons that the item is stored in a remote location, and items are
typically requested by the patron directly through the online catalog.
Regular courier deliveries bring requested materials to campus.xiii Maximizing Space As growing numbers of
libraries move low-use materials off-site, a new concept in storage has
emerged. Called Mobile High-Bay Storage (MHBS), this alternative to the SHBS
approach applies the proven basic principles of compact mobile shelving to
these large-scale environments. Mobile shelving in
high-volume, heavy-duty storage is by no means new: It has been used in
multiple industries for decades to conserve space while providing fast, ready
access to all stored material. Warehouse mobile shelving systems have been
built with carriages over 100 feet long, up to 45 feet high, and with load
capacities exceeding 60,000 pounds per wheel. The shelving and its long-term
structural integrity are thus fully proven. MHBS systems consist of
shelving units typically 30 feet high with 30 or more tiers of shelves.
Shelving carriages, mounted rails recessed into the concrete floor, are moved
by DC motors. All components are designed to accept the loads from the tall
stacks. To access specific items, staff members press a control head mounted
on a stanchion at end of the aisle, or via remote control. The carriages move
sequentially to open the selected aisle. Staff members retrieve materials
typically using wire guided person-aboard narrow-aisle picker vehicles. Wire guidance lets
operators efficiently and safely negotiate aisles as narrow as 50 inches
without having to steer. Safety systems prevent carriage motion if person or
object is in the aisle, and stop the carriage if it contacts a person or
object. Like SHBS, the system
is designed to maximize storage density — only to a higher degree. Shelf
levels are adjustable in 1-1/16-inch increments. Systems can achieve storage
space efficiencies as high as 13 to 15 cubic feet per square foot of floor
space — far greater than for static systems. Shelves are arranged
back-to-back on the carriages so that staff members can access any item
simply by opening the proper aisle. Books are stored in tote boxes (book
trays) on 36- inch-deep shelves, two deep by five wide typically per shelf.
Archival materials are stored in boxes on 30-inch-deep shelves. Systems can be
configured to accommodate an institution’s desired picking speed. For
example, if a single lift truck operator will pick orders, carriages can be
arranged in a single bay with one movable aisle. To accommodate greater
picking speeds with two or more lift trucks working, carriages can be divided
into separate bays with an access aisle for each bay, at a minor sacrifice of
space efficiency. MHBS helps reduce
initial and long-term lifecycle costs because it enables a smaller building
footprint. That saves on construction costs and on heating, air conditioning
and lighting costs for as long as the building stands. Independent studies
demonstrate millions of dollars in lifecycle savings can be achieved for
large storage facilities. Reliable engineering models can predict 20-year
total facility lifecycle costs based on a complete range of variables:
building footprint, building height, wall surface area, local climate, internal
conditions desired, local fuel and electricity costs, and others. Greater energy
efficiency also supports green and sustainability initiatives and can help
support certification under the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in
Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Program. An important
consideration for a MHBS system is whether it satisfies industry
specifications. Given the critical nature of the system, it should be listed
by Underwriters Laboratories. It should also be fire-tested and meet standard
fire codes for this type of storage. Evaluating
Alternatives Whether on-site or
off-site, a sound storage strategy, combined with judicious weeding and
digitizing, can help academic libraries provide space for diverse services
while sustaining expeditious access to collections. A full range of
equipment and configurations is now available for on-site and off-site
storage. An intelligent solution maximizes space efficiency, holds down
building and operating costs, protects the integrity of stored materials, and
supports the overriding goal of delivering high-quality service to patrons. Given the complexity of
storage issues and the expanding array of choices, colleges and universities
seeking expert assistance should call upon a commercial storage company with
extensive experience in designing, installing, and servicing systems designed
specifically for academic libraries. Such experts are exposed regularly to
real-world challenges, and able to guide decision-makers toward solutions
that align with the institution’s overriding goals. About the Author He is currently
Spacesaver’s Acting Library/Education and Museum Market Manager (1999-
present), Major Projects Team Leader for all projects (1990-present), and a
member of the Executive Management Team (1998-present). Haubenschild holds a
bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin
— Whitewater. He is an active member of American Library Association (ALA),
American Association of Museums (AAM), and National Fire Protection
Association. |
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References iiTop 10 Assumptions for the Future of Academic and Research Libraries;
March 2007, Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). |
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