[Ads-l] News Article: Cold Book Storage at Harvard

[Wilson Gray]

> Harvard's Gutenberg is housed in Widener.

Iy was in Houghton, in my day. But, what used to be the independent Harvard
College Library is now part of the Harvard University Library, once not
much more than administrative overhead, which now controls the entirety of
the Harvard library system, under a complete reorganization. Who knows what
the new brooms have done, in the process of sweeping clean?

On Sun, Feb 8, 2015 at 4:25 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: News Article: Cold Book Storage at Harvard
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Sounds much like our LSF, the long-term shelving facility in Hamden, CT, =
> which is a lot closer geographically to Yale's Stirling Memorial Library =
> than 30 miles (more like 4 miles), and even more closer [!], less than a =
> mile as the Google maps, from where I'm typing this at home. Not that I =
> could walk there in 15 minutes and request a book I needed; it's all =
> done electronically as described. =20
>
> They conducted tours of the LSF when it first opened, and indeed the =
> books there are arranged by size, labeled by barcodes, and fetched by =
> forklifts as the article describes for the Harvard Depository.  (Somehow =
> I don't like the sound of that "Depository", but no doubt these lack =
> windows that riflemen could aim from.)  My worry when I did the tour was =
> that if a book somehow did disappear in the bowels of the LSF, it would =
> be awfully difficult for humans to locate it.  Don't know how often that =
> happens.
>
> LH
>
> P.S. I wouldn't have guessed that Harvard's Gutenberg is housed in =
> Widener as opposed to Houghton; ours is in Beinecke, with other =
> rarities.
> =20
>
> On Feb 8, 2015, at 3:45 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>
> > Title: A Glimpse Inside the Hidden Vault Where Harvard Keeps Millions =
> of Books
> > Author: Sarah Zhang
> > Website: Gizmodo
> > Date: February 6, 2015
> >=20
> > Short link: =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__bit.ly_1DROnNV&d=3DA=
> wIBAw&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsSxPIWYiZRs=
> MFFaLQ&m=3DHFt3NnRJ6nMdwsCqwpkoI4V3lNEz6axdlVKDg_lkHC0&s=3DaAf44KQR24BIOj3=
> DHUb32bC3XZKLzrEBcrXZxgguBYs&e=3D=20
> >=20
> > =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__gizmodo.com_a-2Dglim=
> pse-2Dinside-2Dthe-2Dhidden-2Dvault-2Dwhere-2Dharvard-2Dkeeps-2Dm-2D168402=
> 4865&d=3DAwIBAw&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1Ts=
> SxPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3DHFt3NnRJ6nMdwsCqwpkoI4V3lNEz6axdlVKDg_lkHC0&s=3DyT21h=
> XP_HPuHqYyya-BVJ9ED2LJfU6gjBkYAnFt7wUo&e=3D=20
> >=20
> > [Begin excerpt]
> > The Harvard Depository, some 30 miles from the Cambridge campus,
> > better resembles an Amazon warehouse than a library. The 200,000
> > square foot facility houses the vast majority of Harvard Library's
> > collection--some 9 million books, films, LPs, magnetic tapes, and
> > pamphlets sorted not by the Dewey decimal system but by size.
> >=20
> > A fascinating new interactive documentary, Cold Storage, glimpses
> > inside this little-known world.
> > [End excerpt]
> >=20
> > Garson
> >=20
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - =
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttp-3A__www.americandialect.=
> org&d=3DAwIBAw&c=3D-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=3DwFp3X4Mu39hB2bf13gtz0ZpW1TsS=
> xPIWYiZRsMFFaLQ&m=3DHFt3NnRJ6nMdwsCqwpkoI4V3lNEz6axdlVKDg_lkHC0&s=3DacAq_S=
> KOMb2SnH4GFjpjY0kjha2dwKLKOjO4sLwMWSg&e=3D=20
>
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-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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