ALF takes a name

New library facility will help conserve, house and protect IU’s priceless collections

By Eric Bartheld

Karissa Tatman, senior conservation technician, and Garry Harrison, collections conservator, are employees of the IU Bloomington Libraries and are pictured here restoring the cover of a book at the preservation laboratory of the new Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility which was dedicated Oct. 3. IUB has one of the country’s most heavily used collections of books, which circulate at a higher rate than those of any of the top 20 academic research libraries in the country.

IU unveiled its new shelving facility and book preservation laboratory with a dedication and naming ceremony in Bloomington Oct. 3. Designed to hold more than 2.7 million overflow volumes of the IU Bloomington Libraries, the Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF) is named for Ruth Lilly, whose early gift of $1 million permitted planning of the facility to go forward. The new preservation laboratory, the first of its kind for the IU Bloomington Libraries, will provide space and equipment to conserve and protect library collections. Named for an IU librarian of more than 35 years who made a generous bequest to the IU Libraries, the E. Lingle Craig Preservation Laboratory offers the first-ever opportunity to perform sophisticated preservation treatments on the libraries’ irreplaceable collections.

Thorin

“Our library collections are a great asset to this university and must be well cared for,” said Suzanne Thorin, Ruth Lilly University Dean of University Libraries. “Even at a time when so many resources are online, books remain the core of our collection. This new facility ensures our books remain useful and available for future scholars.”

The Main Library has been filled beyond capacity with books for the past decade, and many of the other 18 libraries within the IUB Libraries system are also full or beyond capacity. The Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility will hold lesser used books and other materials in an optimal environment. Materials requested by researchers will be delivered daily, and information such as articles and tables of contents will be transmitted via fax or E-mail.

Tony White (top photo), a part-time SLIS graduate student, works on building boxes for fragile books. The view is upward (middle photo, above), into the climate-controlled storage spaces of the new Ruth Lilly ALF on Range Road. The facility will help ensure the longevity of the library collections for future scholars. Polly Martin (photo at left), a conservation technician, is pictured working on a project at the new E. Lingle Craig Preservation Laboratory, a facility that will offer sophisticated treatments on the libraries’ irreplaceable collections. An automatic box-making machine, the first of its kind in use by an academic research library, will be housed at the laboratory. To read more about book preservation at IU, go to this Home Pages’ archival Web site. Photos by Paul Martens