Millionth item requested for Auxiliary Library delivery
In just two decades IU's Auxiliary Library Facility filled 1,000,000 requests.
From the publisher: Once hailed as a radical breakthrough in documentary and ethnographic filmmaking, observational cinema has been criticized for a supposedly detached camera that objectifies and dehumanizes the subjects of its gaze. Anna Grimshaw and Amanda Ravetz provide the first critical history and in-depth appraisal of this movement.
1,000,000th consecutive item retrieved
For 22 years a small and dedicated team has consistently located and delivered every item requested from IU's massive offsite library storage facility. Known as the ALF, the Auxiliary Library Facility is IU's highly secure and climate-controlled offsite repository. Its unmatched service and collections are known around the globe by researchers eager to use the items held for this generation and the next.
On October 24, 2024, staff received the one millionth request for item delivery. The scholar's request required not only physical retrieval of the IU Press-published book, Observational Cinema, but also included a need for digitization of some of its pages. IU Libraries offers Request Article Delivery, a remarkable service for members of the IU community, which supplies digital copies of journal articles or book chapters from printed and microform materials held on the Bloomington campus. Each scholar is limited to a maximum of 25 requests per month, and book chapters are limited to one per book.
While IU's community has grown used to the rapid service provided, IU Libraries operates the only offsite library facility in the country with same-day physical material delivery service. Materials requested prior to 12:00 p.m. (noon), Monday through Saturday, are delivered to the selected Bloomington library destination by 5:00 p.m. the same day.
Diane Dallis-Comentale is the Ruth Lilly Dean of University Libraries and has been with the university for more than three decades. She witnessed the introduction of auxiliary storage to campus and celebrated the repository's opening in February 2003. Some faculty were concerned the materials might be lost in a remote warehouse or become inaccessible to researchers.
"Since the first days of operation, ALF frontline staff have demonstrated a profound service ethic that influences every aspect of material storage and delivery," said Dallis-Comentale.
"One million requests have been met and not once has an item requested not been found on our shelves. Our faculty, students, and researchers know they can trust us to safeguard materials and make them available when needed. The fact that the book requested was published by the IU Press, which is dedicated to publishing scholarly books and research that endures, makes this milestone all the more exceptional."
Library materials held at the ALF are listed in IUCAT, the IU Libraries online catalog. To request ALF items, after locating the item you want to request, open the IUCAT full record page and use the red "Request This" button on the top right.
Safeguarding 89,721 square feet of collections storage
The Ruth Lilly Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF) is a modern and secure climate-controlled book and object repository. The facility name honors Ruth Lilly, a philanthropist whose $1 million gift helped make the facility a reality in 2002.
The facility also includes the state-of-the-art E. Lingle Craig Preservation Laboratory, book freezers (to assist with treatment of water-damaged materials), space for accessioning, lending, and staff, as well as a secure collections vault with a capacity of approximately 6,400,000 bound volumes.
The climate-controlled collections vault also includes a distinct film storage area with a special fire suppression system for film materials.
When planning to build the original facility, architects, engineers and library staff studied book storage facilities around the country. A crowned roof prevents snow, ice and water from accumulating and causing a cave-in, and seismic bracing protects the collections from earthquake damage. Five security systems are deployed in the facility along with a fire suppression system that triggers sprinklers and the dropping of doors to limit both water and fire damage.
Bookshelves in the original facility soar to heights of 32 feet and have the capacity for more than 6 million books.
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