An assessment of humanist research behaviors and attitudes toward remote storage of collections and technology was conducted at the University of MichiganII emote storage of library collections is both a long-standing issue and a growing phenomenon. Libraries have long pondered the use of remotely housed collections and how best to select materials for those collections.1 During the halcyon days when new construction projects were prevalent, issues of remote storage were less pressing and libraries focused on expanding collections within open stack facilities. But as these boom days waned, libraries once again faced the unpopular decision to develop more economical facilities. While permanent, closed-access facilities for books are not inexpensive, cost studies of storage utilizing a closed-access organization show a significant savings over the cost of conventional, open-access shelving.
2Several studies conducted in the 1970s pointed to the problems experienced by libraries as they implemented collection storage programs. A 1974 study revealed that of 105libraries, 37 were storing significant portions of their collection and 13 more said that storage was imminent. The same survey suggested few libraries had guidelines for book storage, and few had developed procedures for complete record keeping.3 A more recent survey of storage programs of 22 research libraries conducted by the Association for Research Libraries in 1977 reported little uniformity among libraries in terms of criteria for selecting materials for storage, document
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