In January of 1985, Harvard University was approaching a critical condition where many of the libraries were running out of shelf capacity and there was virtually no room on-campus expansion.
The Harvard Planning Group invited Dill and Company to become part of a team to investigate existing book storage operations which the objective of developing the most space and cost efficient method for storage of the low circulation books and other materials.
The team initially researched some of the existing book storage operations including those locally and a recently completed facility at the University of California at Berkeley. We also collected as much data as possible on the size ranges for books of all types with particular attention to the ratios between height and depth. Published data on book sizes generated at Princeton, Brown, and Yale were evaluated and verified by a book size analysis of a collection of volumes in the New England Depository Library in Brighton, Massachusetts.
It became apparent that in order to get substantial improvement in space utilization, books must be segregated by size and stored more than 9" deep, which is the shelf depth used by most libraries.
After looking at a number of storage configurations, we arrived at a system using a number of different sized but modular book trays which would allow books to be stored 36" deep. By grouping the books by size and height and using industrial type shelving and a high level order picker vehicle capable of elevating its operator to reach shelving up to 30' from the ground, the amount of volumes stored per square foot of building area could be improved by a great degree over the other types of book storage available.
Using the above approach, a facility to accommodate 1 million volumes was designed and a number of return on investment analyses were prepared which compared the proposed system with the most attractive of the other systems which the team had investigated. Based on these analyses Harvard approved the concept in mid 1985 and we then completed the design of the storage system including the shelving, book trays and other equipment required.
Bar codes are an integral part of this system and are placed on each book, on each book tray, and on each shelf location in the system.
The first Harvard High Density Storage System had 4 aisles and approximately 9,000 shelves which were set at varying heights to accommodate the range of heights of the books and archive materials. The objectives in the design of the original Harvard Module were to maximize the amount of book storage and minimize the size of the building. A great effort was made to obtain the lowest costs for building construction, shelving, book trays and material handling equipment.
The thirty-foot height of storage was the highest that it is possible to reach with high-level order picker equipment, which can operate in a 54" aisle, which is also the minimum aisle width for this type of equipment.
Depending upon the size of the books in the collection stored, it is possible to store 1.5 to 2.2 million volume equivalents in less than 10,000 square feet.
At project completion we helped with the purchase of book trays and other equipment and the startup of operations.
By September 1990 the first module of the Harvard Depository had been nearly filled and we began working with Harvard on a second 4-aisle module. During the planning process on the second Harvard Module we developed an improved concept for the shelving system with the incorporation of welded steel uprights rather than the bolted systems common to shelving systems. There had been some problems with the shelving system in the first module, which used a more standard type of shelving. The shelving system concept used for the second module offers more flexibility in terms of shelf location and loading sequence than the shelving systems which were available during the conceptual process for the first Harvard Depository Module. The HVAC system for the second module was also modified to have less vertical ducts incorporated into the shelving when it was found that the amount of air moved in the first module was not needed for maintenance of the specified conditions.
The first and second modules were completed at a time when Harvard felt that a fire protection system would not be needed and that potential malfunctions of automatic sprinklers might cause more damage to the collection than the potential of fire. However, due to the high value and amount of the materials, which were being placed in these high-density storage facilities, the question of fire protection was raised in connection with the design of the third Harvard module. An analysis of the available means of automatic fire protection was made in connection with the design of the third module and the potential effects of a sprinkler system on the operation of the facility were evaluated. A decision was made to incorporate in-rack sprinklers and perforated shelves in the third module.
As Harvard's fifth and sixth modules
which each incorporates 6 aisles have now been completed. These
modules have 4 levels of sprinklers in the shelving and one level in
the ceiling. These new modules also have improved environmental
systems which provide a constant year around temperature of 50 F.
degrees and relative humidity of 35%.
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