High-tech storage system to be highlight of new library
A $2.4 million storage system that has been used to store liquor and Latter-day Saints microfilm at other locations will be used for books and journals in Utah State University’s new library.
The Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS) is a major component of the Merrill Library replacement project. The system will be able to hold 1.5 million volumes of books and journals and will allow easy student access to the information.
The ASRS will be capable of containing nearly every volume currently in the Merrill Library, but at the time of the new building’s opening, will only hold about 350,000 volumes, said John Elsweiler, associate director of public services for USU Libraries.
“We’ll have about one-third of the collection in the ASRS at the opening,” he said. “We presently have about one-and-a-half million volumes.”
In the ASRS, volumes will be stored on bookshelf-type apparatuses that are 52 inches tall and 50 inches long, said Linda Wolcott, vice provost for libraries and instructional support. Hundreds of those bookshelves will be stacked on top of each other in a five-story warehouse.
Multiple cranes will travel at high speeds throughout tracks in the warehouse, both vertically and horizontally, picking up a bookcase and delivering it to the circulation area for a librarian to pull the requested journal, Wolcott said.
Wolcott admitted the system is very complex.
“Did you see the movie Monsters Inc.?” she said. “Do you remember all of those doors? It’s kind of like that.”
The system will allow students to sit at a computer, select a journal they need to use, click on a button to request that journal and walk to the reference desk where the item would be ready to pick up, Elsweiler said.
The ASRS design comes from SK Daifuku, a Japanese company based out of Salt Lake City. Wolcott said they are putting a lot of effort into making sure the ASRS is something they and USU can be proud of.
“We’re pretty excited about working with this company because I think they have an interest in making [the ASRS] look really good and showing it off to their customers,” Wolcott said. “I anticipate that we’ll be kind of a showcase building for a lot of people.”
One concern Wolcott said she had is if the system breaks down. SK Daifuku has addressed that concern, Elsweiler said.
“They’ve indicated that they would work with maintenance crews on campus, help train them,” he said. “[The system] will also be on a regular maintenance schedule.”
Elsweiler compared the future maintenance of the ASRS to that of elevators on campus, saying there are some things campus maintenance crews can do, and outside technicians can be called in if needed.
Wolcott said SK Daifuku has indicated there is a technician in Logan who would be available to help if needed, and the company also guaranteed fast turnaround time if repairs were needed.
The company will also be able to monitor and troubleshoot the system remotely from Salt Lake City, she said.
When the library is completed, there will be three locations that the ASRS can be accessed, Elsweiler said.
There will be circulation locations on the main floor and second floor of the library, as well as in Special Collection in the basement of the building. However, the Special Collection area will not be accessible by the public, he said.
On the third floor of the library, there will be a viewing area for students to watch the cranes go up and down, with a Plexiglas window separating students from the ASRS.
Wolcott said the building is designed to have four aisles for cranes to operate within, but for right now as a cost-saving measure, they will only install two aisles.
“It probably won’t have too much effect,” she said. “We’re having to target some things that are nice to have but are not essential at this moment.”
It is important to have at least three cranes to start with, Wolcott said.
“The reason why we would like to have at least three cranes to start with is because of the amount of cycle time it takes to get something,” she said. “If we have three cranes running through those shelves to get things, we could space things out a little more and we could get things faster.”
The ASRS will not replace the traditional storage of books in the library, but will create a compact place for volumes that are not used very frequently. Oft-used materials will be stored on the third and fourth floors of the library, she said.
With the system helping to make retrieval of journal information more efficient, Elsweiler said, the use of radio frequency identification tags (RFID) will also help to make the library more efficient.
RFID tags implanted in every book in the library will allow library staff to find materials in the library, even if they are out of place.
“With a normal bar-code, you can see that the book is checked into the library, but it could be out of place,” he said.
With RFID tags, Elsweiler said it would be possible to track down a book with a scanner to find its location, even if it is on the wrong floor.
Wolcott said USU will be the first library in Utah to implement the ASRS, and said all of the changes and amenities of the new library will be very exciting for students.
“It’ll be fun to watch, to see how this all works,” she said.
– str@cc.usu.edu