Queen’s University has partnered with four other Ontario universities to support the long-term preservation and access to scholarly print materials.

Keep@Downsview shares library preservation and storage facilities and services between Queen’s University, University of Toronto, University of Ottawa, Western University, and McMaster University. This partnership is part of a larger movement in higher education for universities to collaborate to share resources and costs.

With the new program, important but less frequently used print materials from the five university libraries will be kept at the facility. Locating and requesting materials will be seamless for users at each partner institution, and items will be requested from home library catalogues.

“We are very excited about this new opportunity, as an important element of the Library and Archives Master Plan,” says Martha Whitehead, Vice-Provost (Digital Planning) and University Librarian. “The partnership supports learning and research by allowing us to preserve our valuable physical collections while making use of increasing online resources, supporting digital research practices, and meeting growing demands for learning space within our libraries.”

With demands on space at universities increasing while research collections continue to grow, moving selected material to the preservation facility will increase space for study, research and collaboration. The partnership and shared facility will create new opportunities for the development of new services and delivery options that will improve access to collections, including on demand digitization and electronic delivery services for journals currently only available in print.

“This five-way partnership allows for the long-term preservation of important print material in a cost-effective way, and also frees up additional learning spaces for our students,” says Benoit Antoine-Bacon, Provost and Vice-Principal (Academic).”

Downsview is a high-density storage and preservation facility that supports long-term preservation and access to scholarly print materials, and is designed to provide a secure, environmentally controlled space that is optimal for long-term preservation.

The facility uses cost-effective high-density rack storage, and has a capacity for five million volumes, with the potential for further expansion. The facility is located at the University of Toronto’s Downsview Campus in North Toronto, which has been in operation since 2005.