Penn Libraries to Relocate Off-Campus Shelving Facility and Open New Research Annex (LIBRA)	Print Issue
March 23, 2010, Volume 56, No. 26

For more than a decade, library shelves on Penn’s campus have been at capacity. Since 1998, the Libraries have accommodated new acquisitions by transferring lesser-used volumes to a high density storage facility, a leased space at 30th and Market Streets. This facility, currently housing some 1.4 million volumes, is now full, and the lessor, Drexel University, has announced alternate plans for developing the property. Beginning in the fall of 2010, the Libraries will move this off-campus collection to a new facility in Deptford, NJ to be known as the Penn Libraries Research Annex (LIBRA). The selection of this site concludes more than a year of effort by the Libraries and University Facilities and Real Estate Services to find a cost-efficient, adaptable, and long term space to accommodate Penn’s growing library collections, and facilitate rapid delivery of materials in both physical and electronic form.

Expedited retrieval and delivery of print volumes and free digitization of journal articles will be available during the transition, which is scheduled to begin in the fall of 2010. These services will continue when LIBRA re-opens in January of 2011, and a new reading room will accommodate researchers who choose to consult materials on-site.

For more information, and to share comments and questions, please see: www.library.upenn.edu/libra, or contact Bob Krall, director of Departmental Libraries, Resource Sharing & Delivery Services at krallrw@upenn.edu, or (215) 573-3626.