On the 27th June, the Ely Library Storage Facility, was officially opened by Councillor Mike Rouse, the Mayor of Ely, as well as Cambridge University Librarian Dr Jessica Gardner. The building was designed to provide a perfect, climate-controlled environment across 65 miles of shelving for its least-requested books – those deemed ‘low-use’.
Each row of shelving reaches a height of 11.5 metres, around the height of two adult giraffes.
Dr Jessica Gardner, Cambridge University Librarian, said: “Our new Ely site will support teaching, learning and research across all of Cambridge’s amazing libraries by allowing us all to plan new spaces and rethink our existing facilities and services. Only very low-use material will be considered for ingest for which there is little expected future demand.”
