History
The idea of a Library Book Depository was first proposed to the University Office of Space Planning & Utilization and the Director of the University Libraries at Ohio State in 1987 by the Ohio Board of Regents. For several years the University Libraries had been over capacity for housing its books and collections. At the time, the OSU Libraries housed over 4 million volumes in the nearly 30 libraries and special collection areas on campus, and the collection was estimated to grow to 7 million by 2005. In addition, many of the existing libraries on campus lacked temperature and humidity controls for the proper preservation of books and other media. Crowded book stacks and poor environmental conditions forced library staff to shelve books on carts and in other less than ideal locations where they were not easily accessible to library users.
The Ohio Board of Regents realized that there would be a tremendous cost savings to constructing one centralized building for storage of material rather than expanding the individual campus libraries. The Regents recommended that academic libraries develop a plan for constructing storage units that would ease stack overcrowding in the libraries by relocating seldom used materials to a centralized location.
As a result of this 1987 proposal by the Ohio Board of Regents, university planners and the library director visited various existing library storage facilities and interviewed staff. Among the best known of the facilities surveyed and the most innovative was the Harvard Depository, located in Southborough, Massachusetts. Although university officials toured other storage facilities, they were most impressed with the Harvard facility and its concept of high-density storage and use of an environmentally controlled climate that addressed preservation issues.
In 1989, $3,317,000 was funded for the Ohio State University Library Book Depository Project from Ohio State House Bill 810. Based on figures obtained from planners of the Harvard Depository, the amount appropriated for the project covered all project costs. Given the close proximity of the proposed site to campus, Ohio State decided to include office space and reading rooms for the University Archives in its facility.
Ground was broken for the facility in September 1994. After eleven months of construction, Phase I of the Library Book Depository Project was complete and the University Library was granted occupancy in August 1995. Later phases were to include the expansion of the storage area with four additional 9,000 square foot storage modules.