Library Storage

After visiting the Law Library at the University of Tasmania I was astounded to find out that they have a lot of their items stored off site due to the lack of space for all of the collection. This is due to the fact that all items need to be kept as they can be needed and referred to at anytime. The Librarians do a great job of accommodating of much of the collection as they can, even loosing some of their own space as a consequence.
I can't imagine what it must be like to have to order an item or even numerous items from the off site storage area. It takes time and once the request has arrived it is not necessarily going to be the one that the client was after, therefore the process needs to be started again.
In Tasmania it is highly unlikely that we will ever be able to gain funding for a massive storage project such as that used by the University of Chicago in their new Joe and Rika Mansueto Library, but it would be great if we could. Check out the YouTube video below to see what I am talking about.


The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library: How It Works




Isn't it just amazing. I understand that we are a small state and it just doesn't seem feasible for us to have something this large, but surely we should be aiming to look at the possibility of completing a project for the long-term benefit of our University Library storage issues. It would bring jobs to the state, as well as bring us a state of the art library. Of course it makes sense to have this kind of library on the mainland, but it would be nice for Tasmania to have something. :)