The Boulder campus, the Auraria campus, and the Health Sciences Center campus of the University of Colorado will participate in the project, as will both the Penrose and Law libraries of the University of Denver. All storing libraries will share the operating cost. This formula is still being worked out, but is based on the amount of material stored. The warehouse module will accommodate up to 1.25m volumes, which is estimated to allow for storage by the initial participants through 2014. The building will allow for four more 1.25m volume storage modules to be added as needed in future decades.
Stored material is sorted by size, placed in acid-free trays by size, and barcoded for retrieval.
If requested, an operator in a cherry-picker vehicle retrieves the trays. Retrieved items will be delivered to the requesting library by courier van on a 24 hour basis on weekdays. We will be able to make a delivery schedule available once the building opens. The most important criterion is use. We want to place important but lesser used volumes in storage, since the cost of retrieval can be significant.