Construction of Joint Texas A&M-UT System Library Facility To Begin In June

Construction of a facility to preserve library resources of Texas A&M University and The University of Texas System is set to begin in June near Bryan, Texas, following formal approval of a $6.3 million appropriation for the project. The facility is designed to house about 1 million books and make them available to scholars and other interested parties upon request.

The 18,000-square-foot library facility will be constructed at Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus, the former Bryan Air Force Base that the university uses for a variety of research and training endeavors.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents authorized the construction expenditure at its meeting Friday upon the recommendation of Texas A&M President R. Bowen Loftin. The regents had previously approved a $700,000 allocation for planning and other expenses related to the project.

Officials explained the new facility, scheduled to be completed by March of 2013, will help alleviate pressures for space as the libraries continue to add volumes and related resources.

Construction of a facility to preserve library resources of Texas A&M University and The University of Texas System is set to begin in June

“This is an excellent example of cooperation between Texas A&M and the University of Texas for the benefit of our students and faculties and, potentially other scholars and researchers,” Loftin stated, “and it’s ultimately of cost-saving benefit to the taxpayers of Texas.”

“Many of the books are kept for research purposes and are infrequently used,” officials noted in the funding proposal submitted to the regents. “Adding stack space on campus is very expensive and not necessarily a wise use of university land or monies. The idea of creating a joint use library storage facility is a viable solution.”

Following the completion of a jointly funded, high-density library storage facility at The University of Texas at Austin’s J. J. Pickle Research Campus, the two institutions announced plans in 2010 for construction of the facility at Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus to house low-circulation books and older journal volumes that can be recalled when needed. Many of the hard-copy volumes are being held with the expectation of future conversion to digital files. Volumes stored at the Pickle Research Campus require more rigid environmental control than will be necessary for those to be preserved at the Riverside Campus, officials note.

Texas A&M and the UT System have agreed to share the expense of constructing the new facility, officials note, adding that Texas A&M University Libraries will provide staffing.

“In an era of unprecedented budget cuts to higher education, we must pool our resources and work together for the good of Texans, especially those with students attending our universities. This joint library storage facility allows us to do that. We are grateful to The University of Texas System for its foresight in supporting this initiative and unique collaboration,” Loftin said at the time of the initial announcement.

To further streamline collections, a novel process is being implemented through which the institutions can “share” a single copy of duplicated holdings in storage, librarians noted. This allows for the elimination of redundancy in individual collections while preserving a collective copy that can be recalled for use in research and study among users at multiple institutions.

The efforts to jointly implement new approaches to preservation aren’t limited to physical resources. For example, a partnership between Texas A&M and The University of Texas at Austin resulted in the establishment of the Texas Digital Library, an online repository for electronic theses and dissertations. That collaboration now includes more than a dozen regional members, among them several schools from the University of Texas and Texas A&M Systems.

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Media contact: Lane Stephenson, News & Information Services at (979) 845-4662

Texas A&M And University Of Texas Systems Continue Library Collaboration

The relationship between Texas A&M University and the University of Texas is one that has gone beyond classrooms, athletic fields, and research labs — in fact, the partnership has extended into an innovative collaboration between the Texas A&M University System and the University of Texas System to preserve library resources at both institutions.

Projects from the shared libraries initiative have and will continue to benefit students, faculty, researchers of both systems, as well as the entire state of Texas, says interim dean Charles Gilreath.

“For several years the Texas A&M University Libraries has collaborated closely with our library colleagues at the University of Texas on projects to benefit library users in our respective systems and throughout the state, most notably the Texas Digital Library and the joint storage projects both in Austin and at the Riverside Campus,” Gilreath adds.

The design concept and specific site layout for the proposed multi-million dollar joint library storage facility at Texas A&M University’s Riverside campus was well received at November’s Council for Built Environment meeting. The facility will be situated toward the front of the campus, facing out to the intersection of Highways 47 and 21. Construction is expected to start late spring 2012, with a target completion date of February 2013.

The two systems announced the plans for the new Riverside facility last year, after the successful completion of a jointly funded, high density library storage facility at the University of Texas at Austin’s J.J. Pickle Research Campus.

Both systems will share the expense of constructing the $7.5 million facility, with the Texas A&M University Libraries slated to provide staff support for the day-to-day operations.

The new facility will house low-circulation books and journals — more than a million volumes — and will allow for much-needed space at campus library locations with stored resources to be retrieved upon request and delivered to the on-campus user.

The two systems have found virtual ways to collaborate in the field of storage as well. A partnership between Texas A&M and The University of Texas at Austin resulted in the establishment of the Texas Digital Library, an online repository for electronic theses and dissertations that today includes more than a dozen regional members, including many schools from the University of Texas and Texas A&M systems.

The Texas A&M and University of Texas library collaboration also extends into the Texas Water Digital Library, which along with partners Texas Tech University and the Texas Water Resources Institute, will include water research and technology for disseminating scholarship. Since water research is conducted at institutions across the state of Texas, resources will be pooled and made accessible to all through the infrastructure and services of the Texas Digital Library.

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Media contact: Tura King, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4670 or Krista Smith, News & Information Services, at (979) 845-4645