Stella Bentley is hoping to clear out some space in Kansas University’s libraries.

Crews will break ground in the next two months on a warehouse to store up to 1.6 million volumes in KU’s collections, which will make more room for students, faculty and staff to make use of university libraries.

“It’s reclaiming what had been public space,” Bentley said. “It’ll be a mixture of environments, whether it’s group study, individual study or sitting at a work station with productivity software. They can find the environment they’re looking for.”

The $5.6 million Library Annex, funded through tuition money, will be on west campus south of the facilities operations warehouse. It will be 7,500 square feet of temperature- and humidity-controlled space, with 30- to 40-foot-tall shelves.

The warehouse will hold little-used volumes among KU’s 4 million-piece collection, said Bill Myers, development director for the libraries. For example, old scientific journals are rarely accessed.

“What will go there will be the least-used materials,” he said. “They tend to be the oldest things.”

He said most materials would be available within 24 hours for those requesting volumes in the new warehouse, which should be complete by summer 2006.

Myers said the facility would be built larger than is immediately necessary in order to have room for expansion.

Kansas University junior Travis Barnicle, Olathe, kicks back and studies his psychology notes on the fourth floor of Watson Library. Kansas University is making more room at its libraries by moving books to a new storage facility that will be built on west campus.

“It’ll take a number of years to fill it up,” he said.

Once some books are cleared out of existing libraries, restoration of public spaces can be made in Anschutz and Watson libraries. Prime candidates for renovation include the third and fourth floors of Watson Library, he said.

World Online: Panorama — KU library Warehouse