Auxiliary Library almost full, new facility to be built in July 2010

For the last seven years, IU’s Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility has benefited students in ways they might not even know. Now with a new expansion to open in July 2010, the possibilities are endless.

The Facility, which is at 90 percent capacity and holds more than 2 million books, will expand its facility so that it can shelve 6 million books.

“It’s a big milestone,” Eric Bartheld, director of communications for IU Libraries, said. “They will be able to fit 4.2 million more volumes.”

The Facility originally opened to help the IU libraries get rid of seldom-used books so they could free up space for other things, such as classrooms.

For example, the Information Commons in the Herman B Wells Library used to be book storage. Now, it is the location of computers, study areas and classrooms which get more than a million visitors per year, Vaughn Nuest, the Facility’s manager, said.

“It is one of the most shocking things on campus when you see the vault,” Nuest said.

The vault, which preserves the books, is kept at a constant temperature of 50 degrees to ideally safeguard the books for 300 years, Nuest said. The shelves are approximately 35 feet high, with books stacked on top of each other.

While the Facility is not the only one of its kind, only about 50 similar facilities in the United States exist, Nuest said. The Facility will be among the largest and the most technologically advanced once the expansion is finished. It serves as a model for all other colleges trying to build comparable facilities.

“It doesn’t look like a library at all,” Bartheld said.

Unlike a typical library, the Facility has restricted access, which Nuest said is part of the reason it has never lost a book.

“If you do go to the public library, there will not be a 100 percent guarantee you will receive the book,” Nuest said. “People will have moved books ... never to be seen again.”

Josh Howe, a graduate student who has worked for the Facility for two years, said he takes pride in never losing a book and that he can deliver requested books to their clients on time.

“That’s something to hold your head up about,” Howe said. “It’s really fulfilling that we get to deliver these books to patrons on campus.”

Once the expansion is finished, Nuest said he predicts it will take 10 years to fill up.

But by that time, he said he hopes libraries are situated so they will not need to expand again.

“We are going to be able to bring an exciting number of things on campus.” Nuest said, “though many are not known as of right now.”