Beneath New York Public Library, Shelving Its Past for High-Tech Research Stacks
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Beneath New York Public Library, Shelving Its Past for High-Tech Research Stacks

Beneath New York Public Library, Shelving Its Past for High-Tech Research Stacks:

"Since March, after abandoning a much-criticized plan to move the bulk of its research collection to New Jersey, the library has been working instead to create a high-tech space underground for the 2.5 million research works long held in its original stacks.

The books will begin arriving in April, and by the end of spring library officials expect to be using a new retrieval system to ferry the volumes and other materials from their 84 miles of subterranean shelving, loaded into little motorized carts — a bit like miniaturized minecars carrying nuggets of research gold."

I remember the uproar last March when the plan to move the books to New Jersey was announced because it meant that researchers would have to wait hours at best, if not days, to get their books. From reading this, it doesn't sound like this is a completely automated, robotic system, which is a shame, but still involves people pulling from stacks and restocking. But it's at least an improvement.

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