2014 Charleston Library Conference

Print collections continue to grow for most research libraries in North America. This growth, coupled with limited capacity for housing physical collections on central campus, has led many libraries to consider high-density storage. Georgia Tech and Emory have committed to building a high-density storage facility, which will initially house 2 million circulating and special collections materials for both Tech and Emory. The new facility will hold low use material for Emory and for Tech it will serve as the primary physical collection repository, as Tech rethinks the role of the library on its central campus. As the facility is under construction, the libraries are also developing strategies for a shared electronic collection and for providing our users unmediated access to our collections.

Panel Presentation and Discussion: We will dedicate our session to a panel of managers from the two libraries, who will talk about how we planned for the facility and how we are developing policies and services. We will talk about our differing motivations for sharing a high-density print repository and how we have aligned our efforts in two areas: First, the development of key policies (ownership, duplication, FDLP obligations, and preservation); second, the creation of service models for facility operations and users (unmediated discovery and requesting of each other's collection and delivery)

Outcomes: Through panel presentations and discussion participants will learn how mangers at Tech and Emory have developed plans for a shared physical collection in a common repository and how we are thinking about services for our respective users.