The University of Toronto has partnered with McMaster University, Queen’s University, the University of Ottawa and Western University on a Shared Preservation Collection partnership which has been made possible, in part, by a Ministry of Training, Colleges and Education Productivity and Innovation Fund grant which supported expansion of the University of Toronto Libraries’ high-density storage and preservation facility in Downsview. The expansion will add capacity for three million additional items, more than doubling the existing capacity. The partner libraries will share one copy of low-use materials which will be accessible to all of our users via our existing Inter-University Transit Service delivery network.
UTL at Downsview has been in operation since 2005. Low-use materials from all UofT libraries are transferred, weekly, and access to the entire collections is provided by an online request services, supported by a daily courier. The design of the facility and its operational program is based on facilities already in place at institutions such as Harvard, Yale and Ohio State Universities as well as several other universities with large research libraries, located in similar climates.