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This automated storage and retrieval system offers nine or ten times the storage space as standard library shelving.
Valparaiso University is located in northwest Indiana, about an hour from downtown Chicago. With about 4,000 students, Valparaiso (Valpo) is primarily an undergraduate institution with professional schools in business, engineering, law, and nursing. While the law school has its own library, all other disciplines were always served through one main library located near the center of campus. Moellering Library was built in 1959 and expanded in 1969 to hold 266,000 volumes in 54,000 square feet. By the 1990s, the collection had grown past 350,000 volumes, and the need to also house computers and other technologies made it clear that Valpo needed a new library.
Back in the mid-'90s, Donna took part in the conceptual planning for a new facility. And by the time Rick arrived on campus in the summer of 1999, Valpo was anxious to begin detailed planning. While there was a clear need for more book space, the evolution of library services over the previous 4 decades demanded a new kind of facility that would meet a wide variety of needs throughout the campus community. So we were going to build a Center for Library and Information Resources nearly twice the size of Moellering that would house many more books while also providing computing centers, group study space, the campus writing center, a lecture hall, training classrooms, and community gathering space. We wanted to have open shelving space for approximately 300,000 volumes and high-density storage for another 300,000 volumes.
Initially, compact shelving seemed to be a logical choice for high-density storage, but we had concerns about it taking over most of the library in the future. Also, while the movability of compact shelving nearly doubles the capacity of standard library shelving, it is not particularly inviting for users. We needed to find an alternative high-density storage system so that we could make more creative use of space throughout the rest of the building. We also wanted to make sure that any storage solution would be located within the building rather than off-site. Since Rick had worked at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas during the planning for its new lied Library, he was familiar with...