There’s a red elevator inside Elmer L. Andersen Library, tucked behind a door that only library staff can enter. It leads 83 feet below the ground, almost level with the riverbank. On the other side of the elevator door lies the university’s collection of rare, important documents spanning from last year’s Board of Regents minutes to books hundreds of years old. Nestled in two caverns, the archives are a hidden gem of the university’s and the world’s history.

“Most often, people’s first response is, ‘We’ve stepped into Indiana Jones,’” says Rob Strnad, facilities manager of Andersen Library.

Strnad is only slightly exaggerating. With colossal shelves that look 50 feet high, the Andersen Library caverns house eight archives under one roof…er, ground. This includes the Children’s Literature Research collection, the Immigration History Research Center, material from the Charles Babbage Institute and the University Archives. Before Andersen Library was constructed, each of these collections was in separate rooms, buildings, factories, etc.

Not all of these supposedly temporary homes were ideal for research. The Immigration History Research Center collection was stored in a coffee company warehouse for close to 25 years in one such “temporary home” before the caverns were built. In another example, the University archives were stored in a corner of Walter Library, according to Elisabeth Kaplan, co-director of the University Digital Conservancy and a university archivist. Yet the storage space in Walter Library wasn’t exactly the best place for stored records.

“It was awful,” Kaplan says. “It was hot and dusty, the stacks were kind of scary and the shelves didn’t work.”

It was apparent these collections needed proper storage, and library officials began plans for what would become the Elmer L. Andersen Library in the early 1990s. The plan originally called for a library with enough space to house about 2 million volumes. There was simply no way to keep the collections on campus if university officials wanted that kind of space in a library, however.

Plans changed when Donald Kelsey, professor emeritus and former library facilities planner, listened to a presentation on underground mined space. Two researchers from the former Underground Space Research Center gave a presentation on how the university could use underground mined space to help solve parking problems on campus, or so Kelsey wrote when he published a scholarly article on Andersen Library. The architects created a new plan, involving three caverns built into the side of the bluffs on the West Bank campus. These caverns would solve the university’s need to build a permanent home for its collections.

Unfortunately, when U of M officials lobbied the state legislature for the money to build such a library, they were given $3.6 million less than the projected cost of building the three caves. Instead, U of M library officials met with architects to redesign the caverns, making two instead. Now, about 80 percent of Andersen library is underground, with two gigantic caverns worth of documents measuring 65 by 680 by 22 feet.

The collections are fascinating to see up close. The University archives, for example contains documents like minutes of Senate Committee hearings, faculty papers, unpublished faculty correspondence, information on enrollment and “a lot of material on athletics,” according to Kaplan. There are also rare, priceless items like old WWII posters and books that literally escaped Nazi fires, singe marks and all. The caverns have multiple uses, like keeping the Minnesota Library Access Center materials in storage, as well as housing much of the MINITEX library information network materials. MINITEX is a state-funded network of library materials to be shared in libraries throughout the state as well as libraries in North and South Dakota.

Building a storage facility underground helps keep the university’s collections in a safe environment. It’s a secure area utilizing space that doesn’t exist above ground, and best of all, the caverns help preserve the books and documents it stores by regulating the temperature and humidity. Normally, the temperature in the caverns is between 55 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and around 50 percent humidity. The temperature inside the video and tape storage area is about 10 degrees cooler.

“It’s much easier to control the climate underground,” Kaplan says.

For all its wonders, however, the Andersen Library caverns are filling up. The caverns were designed to hold up to 1.9 million volumes, according to Kris Kiesling, director of the University Archives. The caverns are close to 98 percent full, with so many new materials and collections coming in non-stop from the time the caverns opened. Library officials estimate the caverns will be full within the next three years, in spite of the University’s best plans.

“The libraries are being very careful about selecting the material that comes in,” Kaplan says. Library officials are checking over new collections of materials coming in because of the capacity issue, refusing to take materials they already have in storage instead of keeping copies.

When the caverns reach capacity, library officials will review several options to solve the problem. Above all, University library officials want to continue receiving materials, according to Kiesling. In order to continue doing so, they may opt to put in extra shelving to store materials around campus. They may decide to rent storage space off campus, although doing so would be very costly in the long run. The ultimate goal, it seems, is to build the third cavern from the original plans. Doing so would cost about $8 to $10 million, according to Kiesling. The third cavern’s construction would be paid for in fundraising, although it is “high on the library’s wish list.” Even though fundraising won’t happen overnight, the concept of keeping so much valuable material in almost perfect storage conditions will hopefully attract donors.

“When people see the amazing material down there, it’s not such a hard sell,” Kiesling says.

What’s more exciting is that the archives are open to the public for use. Library officials are pretty friendly about giving tours and currently they’re hoping to attract more attention from undergraduate students. Rows and rows of books, maps, documents and other material await anyone who wishes to find and learn from them, ready for exploration, hoping to be hidden no more.

Tags: West Bank