The Automated Storage and Retrieval System and
Simplified Stack Arrangement at
Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana
July 2009
By
Donna R.R. Resetar
Associate Dean of Library Services
Handout
Valparaiso University is a private, primarily undergraduate university, located in northwest Indiana
about half-way between Chicago, Illinois, and South Bend, Indiana. Valpo (as we call ourselves) is
comprehensive institution that combines a strong liberal arts program with professional schools in
business, engineering, nursing and law. Total enrollment is about 4,000 students.
The University opened its new main library, the Christopher Center for Library and Information
Services, in August 2004. The Christopher Center replaced Moellering Library, which was built in
1959 and expanded in 1969 to hold 266,000 volumes. The Christopher Center is twice the square
footage of Moellering and features an automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) from HK
Systems. Capacity of the Christopher Center is estimated at 600,000 volumes; 300,000 on open
shelves and 300,000 in the ASRS. The ASRS is fully integrated with our Innovative Interfaces
library system. For a description of how an ASRS operates, see “Maximizing Library Storage with
High-Tech Robotic Shelving,” by Rick AmRhein and Donna Resetar in Computers in Libraries, v. 24,
no. 10 (November/December 2004).
The ASRS at Valpo consists of 1,872 bins housed in a rack in an area that is 30 feet wide, 80 feet
long and 30 feet high. The bins are four feet long and two feet wide. Most of our bins (1,456) are
fourteen inches high, but we also have 312 twelve-inch and 104 eighteen-inch bins. The volume
capacity of each bin depends on the size of the volumes. The rack is arranged in two aisles. Each
aisle has two sides, twenty-six columns and eighteen rows. Each aisle has a robotic crane that pulls
bins from either side and delivers them to one of four staff workstations. At Valparaiso, our ASRS
staff workstations are located in an area off the main circulation desk. Circulation staff and student
workers pull needed volumes from the bins and deliver them to patrons at the circulation desk. It
usually takes less than five minutes from the time of the request to deliver the item to the circulation
desk.
The following types of materials are currently stored in our ASRS.

Periodicals published 2003 and prior

Back files of reference sets, including the National Union Catalog pre-1956 imprints

Government publications, including the Serial Set, and 3 boxes of microforms

Circulating monographs in selected series we no longer receive

Archival materials and realia

Low-use monographs and serial volumes from the Law School Library
Why would a small university building a new library even consider incorporating an ASRS into its
plans? Off-site storage does not serve undergraduates well (the assignment is often due the next
day!) and compact shelving would not have had the same effect on the building. Building an ASRS
allowed us to reduce the overall footprint of our new building, better incorporating it into the
campus landscape. The ASRS also allowed us to simplify our stack arrangement. On every floor,
the call number sequence begins with the shelf closest to the elevator and end at the back of the
building. To achieve this simplicity, it was necessary for the call numbers to jump across aisles. We
are able to have wider stack aisles with more natural light because we need fewer open shelves.
Devoting less space to stacks allowed us to create a variety of seating spaces. These features make
the library more visually attractive and easier to use, thus increasing its appeal to undergraduates.
(Presentation attendees will see photographic illustrations of these points along with additional details
on how we simplified our stack arrangement.)
How has the ASRS been received on campus? Students adapted to it immediately. Faculty had
reservations at first, but once they realized that most circulating monographs would stay on the open
shelves and be findable by browsing, they became supportive. History faculty were concerned about
the inability to browse historic runs of periodicals, but should that become necessary to support a
class, we will pull an entire run for the semester it is needed and find a way for students to browse it.
We are committed to keeping at least five years of periodicals on the open shelves, along with most
of our circulating monographs. As the open stacks fill, we will consider transferring series (i.e.
annual reviews), large sets (collected papers, set of scores), and more back files of references books
into the ASRS. A general description of how we prepared the collection, planned for the hardware
and software, and accomplished the initial load can be found the article cited above.
Items stored in the ASRS are coded to allow circulation. This allows us to rely on our ILS for usage
data. Circulating materials transferred to the ASRS are governed by the same loan rules as if they
were on the open shelves. Students, faculty and staff may borrow periodicals, reference books and
“non-circulating” government publications for three days. Off-campus borrowers may use these
same materials for limited hours in-house.
We average about twenty-one requests a day from the ASRS. We maintain a less than 24-hour
turnaround on reshelving in the open stacks and in restoring ASRS items, even at peak use times.
Half of our student workers shelf read in the open stacks and half do bin inventories. Our goal is to
shelf read the entire stacks every semester, and inventory every bin annually. We have been able to
find every “lost” ASRS item within a few hours by comparing its check-in date to the bin activity log
for that day. (Items get “lost” when workers store them without properly scanning them.)
Downtime has been minimal. Campus IT staff maintain the ASRS server for us and perform daily
backups. Facilities Management staff maintain the cranes and bins. We keep a limited spare parts
inventory and have reduced our HK service contract to one annual site visit. We are generally
pleased with our ASRS set up and would do only a few things differently if we had to do them over.
We are particularly pleased with how we have simplified our stack arrangement and thus made the
library easier to use.