The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

X. Housing 149
The shortage of space on a systemwide basis is summarized in
Table 21. Using standard formulas, as described below, the libraries
are at present deficient by almost a quarter of a million square feet.
The need for space will grow as more volumes are added to the collections,
of course, and at the projected rate of growth the additional
space needed will be over three quarters of a million square feet in
10 years.
The seriousness of the problem naturally varies from campus to
campus. Undoubtedly the worst case is at Berkeley, where the shelf
space for library materials was exhausted in 1968. Since that time,
not only the main library but seven branch libraries have been forced
to store materials in a warehouse in Richmond. At present, approximately
one million volumes are housed in this off-campus facility, a structure
that is seriously inadequate in many ways, as noted later in this chapter.
After Berkeley, the most serious space problem is at San Francisco.
The library is badly overcrowded (in addition to being
badly arranged), and space is so short that the Reserve Book Room has
had to be moved to a completely separate location; if a student finds
that a book is on reserve, he is now obliged to go outside the building
and walk to another facility to obtain it.
Problems on other campuses are only slightly less severe. The
UCLA libraries as a whole are about 400,000 volumes over capacity,
and some branches are so overcrowded that potential users must be
turned away. The main libraries at Davis and Irvine are also becoming
increasingly crowded, and are already over their designed capacity.
Within three to four years, the other campuses will also be out of space.
Investigation of Alternatives. All of these calculations are
projected on the basis of present methods of housing the University's
libraries. Considering the magnitude of the problem, however, coupled
with the fact of rapidly escalating construction costs, it has become
increasingly obvious that all reasonable alternatives to present
housing methods should be explored.
To accomplish this task, a research team was formed during the
summer of 1976, under the leadership of Donald Thompson, Assistant to
the Executive Director of Library Planning. Members of the team