January 8, 2014

Library Depository Remote Facility offers research visits

Gary Dolan looks for a book 30 feet in the air at the Library Depository Retrieval Facility on East Campus. A specialized, 8,500 pound order picker allows workers to traverse the towering aisles of books, retrieving them for patrons to review.
Troy Fedderson | University Communications

Troy Fedderson | University Communications
Gary Dolan looks for a book 30 feet in the air at the Library Depository Retrieval Facility on East Campus. A specialized, 8,500 pound order picker allows workers to traverse the towering aisles of books, retrieving them for patrons to review.

The Library Depository Remote Facility on East Campus will be open to UNL faculty, staff and students for research visits by appointment only starting Jan. 13.

Gary Dolan, manager of the facility, said the goal of the new service is to assist members of the campus community who need to look through numerous items at once.

“While most patrons request one or two items from the LDRF through ILLiad and receive the scan of the article they need within 24 hours, we have some patrons that need to sit down with numerous texts and it would be convenient for them to use our facility and equipment to do their own scanning,” Dolan said.

The LDRF contains more than 500,000 volumes of books and journals. Appointments for research visits will be available noon to 4 p.m. weekdays. Appointment requests must be made at least 24 hours in advance via email to ldrf@unl.edu. The appointment reservation requests should include a list of materials needed for review.

Staff at the LDRF will retrieve the items on the researcher’s list in advance of the visit. Browsing the LDRF collection is not possible because all materials are stored by size in boxes and many materials will need to be retrieved by forklift.

A workspace equipped with a computer and scanner has been set up for the research visits.

All Special Collections materials stored at the LDRF will still have to be ordered through the Special Collections Department, and can only be reviewed at the Archives Reading Room in Love Library.

All materials held by the LDRF can be requested via the UNL Libraries’ ILLiad (interlibrary loan/document delivery) system.