The University of Chicago's Joe and Rika Mansueto Library and How It Works

The Bibliotech: Library of the Future, Now. (The New York Times, 11/6/2011)

Excerpt: But while many academic libraries are digitizing and moving holdings off site, Manseuto is the largest and latest (of about two dozen libraries) to add automated storage and retrieval systems. Volumes are housed in solid steel cases about 50 feet below ground. Should someone want to actually touch the real thing, books are delivered through a labyrinthine system of cranes and elevators. Picture the door-sorting machine from Pixar’s “Monsters Inc.”