Book Depository Open House Jan. 30

NEW BOOK DEPOSITORY TO HOLD OPEN HOUSE ON JAN. 30

COLUMBUS -- A cold, dark warehouse filled with hundreds of 
thousands of books is one of the latest attractions to come to 
The Ohio State University.

A new book depository located at 2700 Kenny Road, currently 
housing some 300,000 volumes, will hold an open house and tour on 
Jan. 30 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.  The depository, when full, will 
hold some 1.5 to 2 million volumes collected from Ohio State 
libraries and a temporary off-campus warehouse.  The books are 
stored in the depository for preservation and to make room for 
new book acquisitions in the 5-million-volume Ohio State library 
system.

"The depository provides an inexpensive solution to 
crowding in our user access libraries," said William Studer, 
director of libraries at Ohio State. 

One of about a dozen such facilities nationwide, the 
depository is specially designed to accommodate dense book 
shelving.  Whereas conventional library shelving holds an average 
of 10 volumes per square feet, the depository can hold 200 
volumes per square foot, with industrial shelves that are 30 feet 
high, 3 feet deep and double faced.

"There is no substitute for seeing something as amazing as 
this: 30-foot-tall shelves, 170-feet-long, filled with books," 
Studer said. "Because paper loves the cold and dark, the climate 
control is kept like a museum for preservation."

The books stored in the depository are considered of low use 
and are retrieved by requests through OSCAR, the university's 
computerized library catalog system. Because the depository is 
located on campus, the books can be sent rapidly and conveniently 
to those who request them.

The books are not shelved by subject, title or author, so 
there is no shelf browsing.  Instead, the books are given a 
location number and are stored by size in custom made storage 
boxes, filled with books of similar sizes.  The boxes are then 
stored on the shelves.

"Call numbers are no longer relevant," Studer said. "We 
have to be very careful in our numbering or the titles can get 
lost like a needle in a haystack."

The books are retrieved by a library staff member riding a 
"cherry picker," a forklift that has a platform that reaches 30 
feet high and moves along the shelves.

The depository will also house the University Archives, 
which have some 1 million photo images of Ohio State as well as 
other records.  The photos will be held in a separate room that 
will be open for public viewing.

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Contact:  William Studer, director of libraries, (614) 292-6151.
Written by Tracy Turner, (614) 688-3682.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Tue, 16 Jan 1996 11:02:57 -0500]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.