Canada: Nova Scotia University Libraries Discuss Building Central Storage Facility

From The Chronicle Herald (Halifax):

The province’s publicly funded post-secondary institutions have a plan afoot to cull their library collections and ship some of their lesser-used items to a central repository where they’ll be stored in a climate-controlled, secured facility until they’re needed.
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Earlier this year, the provincial Department of Labour and Advanced Education invited Nova Scotia universities to submit proposals for projects that would see the schools work together and cut costs. The department has agreed to provide up to $25 million over three years to bring the projects to fruition.
In the initial round of proposals, the department approved about $700,000 for a feasibility study for the library repository, another study on collaborative data services and an analysis of university spending. An additional $712,452 was approved for seven energy-related projects at six universities.
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But the site wouldn’t just store dusty old books and journals.
“Every archive has a silver-plated tea set, it seems, that some past president from years and years and years ago was given and nobody knows what to do with it,” said Donna Bourne-Tyson, Dalhousie University’s head librarian.

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