Less than five years after Kansas University opened the Library Annex on west campus, the school needs more space.

KU is seeking approval from the Kansas Board of Regents to build a $4 million, 9,600 square-foot expansion immediately adjacent to the annex at 1880 Westbrooke Drive. The issue will be on the regents’ agenda for its Jan. 19-20 meeting.

The current Library Annex has the capacity to hold 1.6 million volumes. It opened in April 2006 and is already half full.

KU officials expect it will be full within three years, so they want to start now on plans for expansion, which would be completed in spring 2013 and also house 1.6 million volumes.

The facilities will house low-use, high-value research collections in order to free up other campus facilities for more heavily used materials.

The cost of the project will be paid with private funds.

The current facility “was designed to accommodate this kind of expansion,” said Rebecca Smith, executive director for communications, advancement and administration for KU Libraries.

“We are one of the top 50 libraries in the U.S. in terms of volumes held. The annex storage model is perfect, it allows us to clear the space that we need, to allow collaborative learning,” Smith said. She said when materials are requested from the annex, they can usually be provided within 24 hours.