Did you know that there is a giant library archive in a cavern 82 feet below the University of Minnesota's West Bank Campus called the Minnesota Library Access Center? This magnificent facility is reminiscent of a huge underground munitions store, but is filled with aisle after aisle of books arranged by size for maximum density. Though it is closed to the public, my colleague David Schmidtke and I got a tour of MLAC last week from Tim McCluske while dropping off some items being shifted from our collection to their archives. The purpose of MLAC is to house low-use items from libraries, and since 2006 we have transferred 2,895 items to their collection. Mostly we send obscure technical consultant's reports on subjects like sediment quality in specific rivers or archaeological excavations related to highway construction. They don't get much use in our library but can be very valuable for U of M researchers and if our patrons ever need one of these items back, we can usually retrieve them within a day or two.
The shelves are 17 feet high, and are accessed by two 'stockpickers' (forklifts that enable staff to slide heavy book trays onto a shelf without having to lift them) named Isis and Osiris. The facility is nearly full, but luckily they have four shelves reserved for future deposits from the LRL.
Visit the LRL Flickr site to see more photos of this cool place!
