Off-site stacks gained considerable momentum when Britain’s renowned Bodleian Library announced it was installing a robotic retrieval system (here’s a video of one such system at North Carolina State University’s Hunt Library). Off-site automated storage and retrieval systems for libraries have been around for awhile. The first institution to install such a system was California State University at Northridge, in its Oviatt Library, in 1991. The process sounds exciting and, in the long run, can save money. But few campus libraries are large enough (or rich enough) to merit expending so much cash on high-tech cataloguing and retrieval. Likewise, warehousing books at an off-site location also costs a bundle even when the retrieval system relies on less sophisticated systems. An example: In my region, warehouse space starts at around $3 a square foot for space that is neither climate-controlled nor has the requisite ceiling height recommended for very-narrow-aisle-racking systems.
http://www.chronicle.com/article/Its-Not-Too-Late-to-Save-the/238106
The Chronicle of Higher Education
(A subscription may be needed to read this story.)