General Purpose Building

The Master Plan articulates the spaces envisioned for each of the branch libraries. What we do know, is that it is necessary to look at consolidating our print materials in order to create additional research, study, and learning spaces within the library. Storage of print materials is critical to the successful achievement of this plan. In addition, we will need to have swing space for collections temporarily moved from a branch being renovated. The General Purpose Building will play a key role as both permanent storage space and swing space.

A collections related working group has been working to outfit the storage area in the General Purpose Building with compact mobile shelving. Work is progressing on the design of this storage area and the layout of the shelving. Our current space in the building has about 2.5 kilometres of shelving. Having a larger storage area in the General Purpose Building and introducing compact mobile shelving will mean that the shelving capacity will increase by over 600% to a little more than 16 kilometres.

The compact shelving will be mechanical and, in areas where the floor capacity permits, up to 8 shelves high. We expect that the facility will be available the spring of 2017. Work has continued on the design for the compact shelving in the General Purpose Building, taking into consideration the operational needs of ICT, FMD (Mailroom), Soil Science and the library. A shared workroom has been designed for the FMD mailroom and Library that would allow a collaborative service model. Our  plan for the General Purpose Building has been finalized that includes compact mobile shelveing for the Library, mailroom space, and ICT space.