New Texas A&M-University Of Texas Systems Joint Library Facility Proving Broadly Successful

The new library facility jointly operated by The Texas A&M University System and The University of Texas System — a cost-saving endeavor described as representing “unprecedented collaboration”— was designed to accommodate one million volumes with an option to expand to handle an additional two million volumes. As volumes pour in more quickly than anticipated, that option may be exercised sooner than expected — and from unforeseen sources, including UT Southwestern Medical School, which sent almost its entire hard-bound collection.

Also, one private institution, Trinity University, has opted to donate many of its hard-bound monograph publications to Texas A&M University Libraries so that these volumes may be housed at the year-old $6.3 million facility at Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus. The facility, operated by Texas A&M faculty and staff, is located about 10 miles northwest of the university’s main campus at what was formerly Bryan Air Force Base.

More than 350,000 volumes will be housed in the 18,000-square-foot building by the end of the year, with an additional 100,000 at the facility waiting to be processed, predicts Texas A&M Libraries Dean David Carlson. “The facility on the Riverside campus enables the University of Texas and Texas A&M libraries to store print books and journals using high-density shelving, minimizing the physical requirements and costs of print storage,” said Carlson.

Thus, it helps alleviate pressures as the libraries continue to add volumes and related resources in their main campus libraries, officials note, while keeping the burden of storage costs off individual campuses in both systems.

To streamline collections, the collaborating institutions have implemented a novel process of “sharing” a single copy of duplicated holdings in the new facility. The process eliminates redundancy while making a “shared” copy available for research and study among users at multiple institutions.

“As we rely increasingly on digital technologies for access to information, this facility allows us to protect the vital legacy of print materials and provide timely access to the originals,” Carlson explained. The shared storage facility, which opened in late spring 2013, is formally and simply named the Joint Library Facility (JLF).

A 2010 study was cited showing the cost of storing a single volume in an open library stacks facility is $4.26 per year, taking into account personnel, lighting, maintenance and heating and cooling costs. The cost is pegged at 86 cents per volume for storage at a facility such as the one jointly operated by the Texas A&M and University of Texas Systems – representing a savings of $3.40 per volume.

In addition to being available to users at the UT and Texas A&M libraries, and at other institutions within the statewide systems, the books will be made available to other academic or medical institutions in Texas at no cost, Carlson said.

“The Joint Library Facility is a tremendous regional resource for Texas libraries, enabling our institutions to maintain the cultural record as a shared priority,” says UT Libraries Executive Associate Director Catherine Hamer. “By relocating select materials to the JLF facility, institutions like the University of Texas at Austin can make room for collections growth on campus while still having access to all the materials housed in Bryan.”

A small but dedicated staff handles the day-to-day operations of interlibrary loan, receiving, cataloging and storing the thousands of books which arrive on a regular basis. Wyoma vanDuinkerken, JLF director, oversees the operations. “This amazing team has achieved extraordinary accomplishments in a very short time, and at our current rate of ingestion, this facility will be filled in three more years. This has been accomplished with a strong work ethic and a lot of fun. In the immortal words of Josh Wilkinson, ‘we make it work,’” she says.

The Texas A&M and University of Texas Libraries have collaborated on projects in the past, including the Texas Digital Library and preservation storage in the High Density Repository on the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in Austin, but this newest joint venture represents an even greater degree of cooperation by incorporating the shared “resource-in-common model” for all materials in the facility and including general academic and medical campuses from both systems.