The Southern Regional Library Facility

The Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) is the library storage facility for the southern California UC campuses (Los Angeles, San Diego, Irvine and Santa Barabara), and it happens to be on our UCLA campus. There is also a Library Facility for the northern California campuses located in the East Bay.

Because of space limitations, for every new book we get in the UCLA libraries we have to move one into the SRLF. The SRLF holds many of the library’s older and lesser-used materials.

Since UCLA students often have to request a book from the SRLF I figured it would be fun to organize a tour of the facility to see the collection and what goes on inside. I organized a tour in my capacity as an officer with the American Library Association (ALA) UCLA student chapter for the library science students. It was very cool. Pictures to follow:

Here is a picture from the SRLF stacks which are closed off to the public and students. The vertical shelves are mounted into the foundation of the building and extend through each floor. The stacks are organized by book size for space reasons. This is how the stacks are mounted and organized in the New York Public Library:

Here is the collection of original film reels. There were a lot. One of the reels said “Beatles press conference.” Awesome.

movies

Here is a part of the microfilm collection. This really blew my mind. Each pull-out shelf contains about 30-40 microfilm reels, and I almost couldn’t see the end of the microfilm shelves. Also, this was only about halfway down the length of the microfilm wall. This reminded me of the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Here is one of the entrances into the SRLF stacks from the bunker-style hallway. I won’t lie, if there is ever a zombie attack, I would seriously hole up in this building.

Here is one of the original films in the film collection. Warlock, ooooooooooh.

1 Comment

  • DianaCecelia February 25, 2009

    very cool Chris! So when are you going to cross post this on the ALA Blog so future MLIS students can study your brilliant travel essay?

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