Shared Physical Depository: The Five College Library Depository
Jay Schafer
Need
• limited shelving capacity
• high costs of building expansions to campus libraries
Benefit
• recouped shelf space on multiple campuses
• anticipated savings of 75 percent in storage costs
The Robert Frost Library at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, opened in 1965, and by 1989 it was clearly time to plan for additional shelving capacity. Surprised by the estimated $26 to $29 million expansion cost to renovate the Frost Library, the College went looking for less-expensive solutions. Coincidentally in 1992 the Federal Reserve was planning to auction a 44,000-square foot Strategic Air Command Base it had acquired from the U.S. Air Force. The facility, commonly referred to as “the bunker,” was built into the side of the Mount Holyoke Range about four miles from Amherst College. After Amherst College acquired the 26-acre site and structure, it soon became apparent that it was very well suited to be an off-site storage facility for library materials, and within several years, 75,000 volumes were transferred from Frost Library to the bunker.1
The Five College Libraries (the libraries of Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst) have a long history of successful collaboration in many areas, including acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, electronic resource management, and materials delivery. Like Frost Library, each of the other libraries was running out of space. The libraries were also meeting resistance from campus administration about the high cost of building expansion. Although there was initial concern about a central book depository in the Five Colleges Librarians Council (FCLC), their history of cooperation, the high level of trust among the five, and the considerable encouragement from their presidents to expand coordination of collection development and collection maintenance convinced the FCLC to move forward with a shared physical book depository.
In 1998, the Five College’s Board of Directors authorized the creation of a Five College Library Depository (FCLD). FCLC then approached the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund a planning grant to explore the rental of 10,000 square feet of space in the Amherst College bunker to create the Five College Libraries Depository as a place for storing one copy of little-used print journals and books. Duplicate copies could then be de-accessed by other libraries, saving space in the on-campus libraries that held copies of each little-used item. The FCLD was to function as a shared collection from which any of the Five College libraries could recall a print copy or a facsimile of an article. Storage cost in the FCLD was estimated to be less than one-fourth the cost of storage on campus. With a total capacity estimated at 500,000 volumes, it was estimated that the University of Massachusetts would provide about 55 percent of the contributions, while Amherst and Smith would each provide about 16 percent, Mount Holyoke 12 percent, and Hampshire 1 percent.2
All campuses would be beneficiaries of the shared collection and the Last Copy Policy by creating space in their on-campus shelving regardless of which campus contributed materials directly to the FCLD. Of note, the Last Copy Policy states that a library may not de-accession the last copy of a work held in the Five College libraries unless that last copy is in the FCLD. Contributions from the private colleges would become property of the consortium; contributions from the University would remain property of the University but would be committed to shared use.
In 2000, the Amherst College Board of Trustees authorized the leasing of 10,000 square feet to be used as the Five College Library Depository. Five Colleges raised $1.75 million in grants (from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Davis Educational Foundation, and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation) and earned interest to support the launch of the FCLD. Of this, $250,000 was for significant renovations to the bunker, including upgrading the HVAC and fire protection systems. Over time, more than $1 million was invested in compact shelving; the balance was used to support the operating costs of the FCLD in the early years when the three-person staff included a professional librarian as director. The director planned the optimal shelving strategy.
The FCLD opened in November 2002 when the first shipment of materials was received. Capacity of the site is now estimated at 550,000 volumes, based on actual shelving space and compact storage strategies. Items are stored by volume size, not by call number. The FCLD now holds about 519,000 volumes with additional capacity for about 31,000 volumes. At the recent rate of shipments from the five campuses, the facility will be filled in one year or less. Facing the prospect of rapid filling of the remaining space, restrictions were recently placed by the Five College Librarians Council on the items that may be contributed to the FCLD collection.
The FCLD has very strong holdings of commonly held print journals, such as those digitized by JSTOR and others. In 2006 the Five College Librarians Council established an affiliate membership to the FCLD that allows academic libraries to pay a modest annual fee to have the right to request facsimile or print copies and propose additions to the collections that might complete or extend collections contributed by the Five Colleges Libraries. Currently there are about 180 FCLC affiliate members from six states.
Knowing that the FCLD is approaching capacity, FCLC has received and discussed various proposals to expand the facility. In spring 2011, a study authorized by the Five Colleges Board of Directors determined that it is not feasible to expand the FCLD at the bunker site. Alternatives are being explored. The ongoing need for storing little-used materials continues proportionately at all campuses, and all campuses continue to support the policy of placing such materials in the facility under the no-duplication, common use policies of the current depository. In November 2012, the Board of Directors endorsed continued exploration of expanding the facility.
Building on the FCLD affiliate member concept, FCLC has led discussions exploring the possibility of expanding the FCLD into a New England/North East Regional Depository (NERD). Discussion questions included:
• Are there other academic libraries willing to participate in a regional shared print collection, made up of monographs as well as journals, in which ownership rights are assigned to the shared collection?
• Is there a need for proprietary storage of institutionally owned, little-used materials?
• Is there a regional need for storage of other materials such as manuscripts, art, and other artifacts?
Before moving forward with a shared regional physical depository for monographs, several questions must be addressed:
• What is unique?
• Is this a dark archive, where items can’t be accessed by users? If not, how can we guarantee a copy will always be available?
• How quickly can we provide access to an item for our faculty and student users?
• How does this fit into the national or international picture?
• How many copies do we need to keep?
The shared print collection of the Five College Libraries Depository is an extremely successful example of library cooperation and collaboration. The FCLD has preserved access to little-used print journals, and to a lesser extent, monographs, while eliminating unnecessary duplication among the Five Colleges Libraries and the affiliate members. Although there is definitely a need to expand the FCLD to include more print journal runs, the challenge will be to determine how well this model extends to collecting and preserving little-used monographs.
1. Willis E. Bridegam, “A Collaborative Approach to Collection Storage: The Five-College Library Depository,” (Washington, D.C.: Council on Library and Information Resources, June 2001).
2. Neal Abraham, “Five College Library Depository: Background and Issues,” Executive Director of Five Colleges Internal memorandum, November 26, 2012.