Inside look at the Harvard Depository

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“Contrary to trends elsewhere, when a researcher orders an item, it is retrieved by humans, not robots. People handle materials much more carefully than machines do, and retrieve them faster (in about 60 seconds), ensuring that patrons get their items within one business day. Most years, the team has a perfect retrieval record on the more than 230,000 requests received. [..] Space, energy, and time are maximized; standardization makes the system work. Items are categorized not by subject matter or Library of Congress call number but by type, owner, and size. Like goes with like. Books are quickly sized by hand and grouped with similarly sized volumes. They are then lined up in cascading order in a specially made, acid-free cardboard tray, creating a neat incline. The trays are placed on shelves that accommodate the volumes exactly, leaving a tiny margin for moving them in and out of the shelving. [..] The trays are barcoded and color-coded as if readied for an expert game of Tetris. A batch of items is always scanned, then rescanned before shelving. Redundancy ensures that nothing is lost. Staffers run a report after each batch to compare; any inconsistencies are flagged and resolved before the trays are lined up on carts for shelving.

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Security needs to account for all contingencies to prevent a loss that could come from putting all 10 million proverbial eggs in one basket. There are backups to backups, and plans for emergencies of all kinds, even a natural catastrophe. Six miles of pipe crisscross the facility as part of its fire-detection and -suppression system, which is monitored constantly, and equipment for leaks is placed liberally around each module.

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