UBC opens Canada’s first robot-based library
Mixed reaction to Automated Storage and Retrieval System
Niall Williams The Ubyssey (University of British Columbia)
VANCOUVER (CUP) — Robots have invaded the University of British Columbia campus. A $4 million Automated Storage and Retrieval System — the first in Canada — is being housed in the newly opened Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.
Currently, it holds about 800,000 volumes, but has the capacity to store 1.8 million.
The books are stored in 19,000 two-foot by four-foot bins and are retrieved from their slots by large automated machines. When summoned, it usually takes about five minutes to fill a request.
Catherine Quinlan, a university librarian, noted that a lack of storage space was one of the main concerns with the old library. She said libraries need to plan for the future.
“When the construction of the Learning Centre began in 2003, we had less than three years of growth space left; therefore it was important that this building provide capacity for the next 10 years at least. We buy or otherwise acquire (through donation) approximately 100,000 print or physical items each year.”
There were several different options available to the university, but, said Quinlan, “The ASRS was the most cost-effective option and provided the shortest retrieval time.”
The new system will end manual browsing for books, but according to Leeta Sokalski, circulation manager at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, a great deal of effort has been put into choosing material that is used infrequently.
“The ASRS is currently processing about 100 requests a day, which I think is quite high, considering we are only holding lower-use material,” said Sokalski.
Librarians tried to minimize the impact of the ASRS by choosing out of date material such as scientific journals and documents from the UBC archives, especially ones that are available online.
Sokalski points out that one of the most important benefits of the ASRS is that it will allow the university to keep physical copies of the books.
“Harvard has decided to chop their books and store the information digitally. We have made a commitment to keep the books. ASRS allows us to do this,” she said.
The ASRS was being considered well before the old wing of the library was demolished. Irving K. Barber had the idea in mind when he donated the money many years ago. The university decided to construct the ASRS, and now the idea has finally become a reality.
Students, however, have had mixed reactions about the retrieval system.
“I haven’t used it yet. It looks horrible,” said Dan Remple, a graduate architecture student.
Others have received it with open arms. Rob Hawking, a third-year science student, liked the system because he feels it is progressive.
“I needed it as soon as it started up,” said Matthew Hasselfield, a science graduate student. “It’s great for journals; no one needs to browse journals. Browsing is helpful for books; you can’t find everything you’d need on the Internet.”
