By Annie McGrew Staff Writer
Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology announced yesterday that they will be collaborating on a new joint storage library called the EmTech Library Services Center located on Emory's Briarcliff property.
The Library Services Center will function as a long-term preservation facility of library materials for Emory and Georgia Tech, where the administration is moving toward the creation of a bookless library.
Site preparation for the Library Services Center is underway, according to a Nov. 20 Emory press release. Building construction will start this fall, and expected completion will be in fall 2015.
According to Emory Librarian Yolanda Cooper, who joined the Library Board in 2013, this collaboration will benefit both campuses by increasing the number of resources available and leveraging current resources to preserve library materials.
The project expands on partnerships that Emory and Georgia Tech already have in place, Cooper added.
"I'm most excited about preserving library materials in the best environmental condition and making them accessible to both the Emory and Georgia Tech communities," Kathy Tomajko, Georgia Tech associate dean of libraries and aerospace engineering librarian, wrote in an email to the Wheel.
Georgia Tech decided to transition to this high-density warehouse storage library after "usage of [its] print collection has declined significantly since 2003," according to the Georgia Tech Library website.
In addition to preserving the collection in a temperature and humidity-controlled facility, which would ensure preservation of at least 200 years, moving the collection will also free up valuable user space in the library, which is located in the heart of campus, the Georgia Tech website notes.
Cooper wrote that Emory had similar incentives for moving some of their collection.
"The majority of the materials currently in the Georgia Tech library will be housed in the facility and for now Emory will move materials currently in storage to the facility."
Since the library is mainly for long-term preservation of library materials, there will be a reading room for faculty, students and visitors take their time viewing the materials, Cooper wrote. She added that the equipment found in the library will mainly be used for search, inventory, retrieval and possible digitization for electronic delivery.
There will also be a delivery service through daily requests, Cooper wrote, and users will be able to reserve materials online and retrieve them from the Library Service Center, according to the Georgia Tech website.
Cooper revealed that she is excited about the expanded resources this library will provide for both communities.
"This is just one of many collaborative initiatives we can look forward to," Cooper wrote.
Emory Senior Reference Librarian Lloyd Busch said he was excited about the new center, noting that the artistic renderings of the building were very nice looking.
Busch cited that many of the books from Georgia Tech will be in hard sciences, while the Georgia Tech website states, "Because overlap between the two collections is quite low in many areas, Georgia Tech users will have access to a much richer set of resources, particularly in the humanities, social sciences and medical areas."
Busch added that the storage facility is much needed because the Emory library is running out of room at the Robert W. Woodruff Library and in their storage facility.
"We have lots and lots of stuff in storage – old journals and old books and there's no way for anyone to come in and use them," he said. "In order to use them, we have to call them in from storage. The new center will make these works more accessible."
– By Annie McGrew, Staff Writer
