University Times

The University Library System (ULS) is seeking a $10 million foundation grant for construction of a resource preservation center. The center would be for the high density storage of books, and the preservation of digital and paper archives.

To obtain the grant, however, Pitt will have to be mighty lucky. ULS Director Rush Miller reported to Senate Council's plant utilization and planning committee (PUP) on Oct. 9 that more than 300 proposals have been submitted, but only three or four will be funded.

Due to a confidentiality clause in the grant application, Miller declined to name the foundation. Pitt's application was submitted late last month. Miller said he did not know when the foundation will make a decision.

Construction of the preservation center is needed to relieve a severe space shortage in the library system. According to Miller, Hillman Library was designed to hold one million books and now contains 1.8 million volumes, a figure that is increasing at the rate of 70,000 to 80,000 volumes annually.

Miller noted that ULS also stores over 300,000 volumes at the University of Pittsburgh Applied Research Center (UPARC) in Harmar Township. "And we're rapidly filling up any space that is there," he said.

The tremendous growth in the size of Hillman's collection since Hillman opened in 1968 has resulted in the loss of 1,000 seats in the library. As a result, Miller said, people often must sit on the floor in Hillman.

Pointing to the lack of seating and open space , Miller noted that in 20 years as a library administrator he has "never seen a library so little used for social reasons and so much for research." Along with seating, Miller said, Hillman has lost so much office space to its collections that staff are jammed into the remaining space in ways that might be considered "inhuman." He told PUP that the odd array of office space and improper arrangement of equipment has resulted in a severe carpal tunnel problem among Hillman's staff.

Even the 100,000 square-foot addition that is being planned for Hillman will "not create a solution to anything. It will only make a little better environment," said Miller, adding, "By the time the addition is completed in five years, without additional storage space, we're full again." Under the University's master space plan approved by the Pittsburgh City Planning Commission last spring, an addition to Hillman Library is scheduled to be built within the next five years.

The design proposed in the master space plan calls for an addition to be built onto the front of Hillman along Bigelow Boulevard. A revised plan presented to PUP last month, however, now favors the construction of a high-rise in the open space between Hillman and Forbes Quadrangle. Director of Facilities Planning Ana Guzman told PUP the change is favored because it will be cheaper to build a high-rise than to add to the front of the library. Before any addition is built, plans would have to be approved by the city.

If ULS obtains the grant it is seeking, Miller told PUP, he would like to see a preservation center built within walking distance of Hillman or along a shuttle bus route. He said many large research libraries (Hillman now ranks 30th in size among North American research libraries) have such a storage facility located within a short distance of the main library.

When the University purchased the Masonic Temple along Fifth Avenue about two years ago, one of its planned uses was to store books within easy reach of Hillman Library. The latest plans for the temple, however, call for it to possibly become the home of Pitt's new undergraduate College of Business Administration (CBA) and the Katz Graduate School of Business.

The change in use is being considered for economic reasons. Renovation of the temple to house the two business schools is expected to be much cheaper than the estimated $20 million it would cost to construct an 85,000 square foot CBA building on the preferred site of the South Bouquet Street parking lot. A feasibility study on housing the two business schools in the Masonic Temple was completed Oct. 1 and submitted to the Office of the Provost. A spokesperson for Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Resources Management Robert Pack said he is not yet ready to discuss the study.

Possible sites for a preservation center listed in ULS's grant application include the area behind the Chevron Science Center, the area next to the Pittsburgh Biotechnology Center on Second Avenue in Hazelwood and Washington's Landing on the Allegheny River.

Guzman told PUP that those three sites were included in the application simply because ULS had only two weeks to submit a proposal and three sites had to be named in it. If ULS receives the grant, Guzman said, a preservation center could be constructed on any number of other sites, but she did not specify where. She added, though, that since the building would be a big box-like structure, "it is not something you would want to see on Forbes." Should ULS receive the grant, construction requirements probably would play the biggest role in selecting a location. Guzman said such a center must be on solid ground and cannot have a basement because of the amount of weight it would have to support.

Office buildings are built to hold 80-100 lbs. per square foot, according to Guzman, while libraries are built to hold 150 lbs. per square foot. A preservation center in which books are stored on high-density shelves 30 feet high would have to support 400 lbs. per square foot.

Miller said he is already seeking additional storage space at UPARC. But, he pointed out, UPARC's 15-mile distance from campus makes it inconvenient for most members of the University community.

While making it clear that ULS does not plan to stop acquiring books and will continue to offer the best service possible, Miller added that "the only alternative in my mind to additional UPARC space is to box books and seal them for five years [when the Hillman addition will be completed]. And we really don't want to do that."

–Mike Sajna