Running Out of Library Space: Sharing Remote Storage in Increase Cost-savings and Conserve Space

Leah Pellegrino, Head, Catalog and Reserves traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to present a poster on behalf of the library at the Southern Chapter & Mid-Atlantic Chapter Medical Library Association Joint Conference in October. The theme of this year’s conference was “Together: New Horizons, New Opportunities.” Our poster, Running Out of Library Space: Sharing Remote Storage to Increase Cost-savings and Conserve Space, seemed a good fit for this theme. It was originally presented at the Medical Library Association Annual Meeting in May 2006.

This poster was a joint effort between Himmelfarb Librarians (Kathe Obrig, George Paul and Leah), and librarians from Dahlgren Memorial Library at Georgetown University (Vani K. Murthy and Tracie E. Frederick). It reported on a cooperative project between these two health sciences libraries to relocate pre-1980 bound journal volumes in a local consortium remote-storage facility.

The Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library and the Dahlgren Memorial Library are two academic health sciences libraries located in close geographic proximity. Both libraries have similar collections and were planning offsite projects. Rather than launch separate projects, the libraries worked together to reach an agreement designed to eliminate duplication of identical journal titles in order to conserve space in the storage facility and provide cost savings to both libraries. The volumes of one library were physically shipped to storage, and the second library was then billed their half of the cost for the titles held in common. Both libraries also shipped unique titles held by their institution.

A total of 11,836 volumes were sent to storage from Himmelfarb Library's collection; 6,636 of these were held jointly by both libraries. Both libraries freed up valuable space which was then reconfigured to meet the demands of changing technologies. Less space was utilized at the consortium facility, which was already experiencing space shortages. Both libraries benefited from the significant cost savings as well, and the project proved to be an effective way to promote between the two libraries.