To what extent does the library leverage shared storage
space with other regional libraries and de-duplicate holdings across
institutions? Should we?
What are we already doing related to the question?
If we wanted to consider starting this initiative or
expanding what we are already doing, what do we want to learn about it from our
future speakers? What questions do we want to ask during our upcoming speaker
series?
I think for some of the titles requested (especially frequently) by patrons through ILL or suggestion tools should be duplicated by our library and others due to demand. While we don't share storage space to my knowledge, we do have a very active inter-library loan program with both incoming and outgoing material.
ReplyDeleteDue to our locations, I am not sure that a shared storage space would be beneficial to all involved. I can see benefits to building one high-density storage facility and sectioning it for use by different universities and public libraries in a city or within a one hour commute from one another. This would greatly reduce expense for an individual entity and allow the combined to build a larger facility.
Would there be as great a benefit if the region sharing space were expanded? I think that the cost of transporting to and from would increase quickly.