Robarts Library, the fourth biggest academic library in North America with 4.8 million volumes, is being de-booked.
In the middle of a two-year renovation, the massive brutalist library is undergoing a six-floor renovation, replacing stacks with study spaces to maintain the building's utility for students.
Once a sort of physical manifestation of the Internet, Robarts is now feeling the effects of the actual Internet. "Everybody's accessing information online now," says Nadeem Shabbar, the Univeristy of Toronto's chief real estate officer.
So the librarians made a list of the least-accessed books, and they're being moved to a storage facility in Downsview. Students will still have access to them, but only by special order, deliverable in 24 hours.
Four of the six floors have been completed.
The renovation has been budgeted at $24 million, and is due to be completed in early 2011, after which another, larger project will commence to add another pod-structure to the back end of the building, over the loading dock to create even more study space. The new structure will be called Robarts Pavillion.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Nadeem Shabbar
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