Archives and Research Center Spaces

Archives and Research Center Building Features

Texas State University's Archives and Research Center (ARC) is a state-of-the-art offsite preservation storage facility. The building, which opened in September of 2017, was designed to support 10 years of library growth. The ARC’s climate-controlled environment features cold temperatures and low humidity that will prolong the life of university assets. This keeps them available for exploration and discovery while supporting the growth of University Libraries and Texas State. The ARC is a closed-stacks facility that is open by appointment with a reading room to allow students, faculty, staff, researchers, and community members to review and interact with materials on site.

Initially more than 600,000 non-circulating or low-circulation library items, as well as 3,000 linear feet of archival materials from the Special Collections and Archives and The Wittliff Collections, were identified to be processed and moved to the ARC. By accomplishing this move of materials, the University Libraries were able to re-purpose valuable space for The Wittliff Gallery expansion, Alkek One and multiple student collaboration areas.

Click on image below to get information about each space.

Room with artifacts preserved — Art and Artifact Room

Reading room with tables and chairs — Reading Room

quarantine room with freezer — Quarantine Room

Archivist room with documents, tables and chairs — Archivist Workroom

photo with a computer workstation — Processing Room

High Pile

The High Pile features high-density shelving that rises 35 feet high, contains more than six miles of shelving space and is environmentally controlled at 50°F with 30 percent relative humidity for ideal preservation. The climate-control systems in the ARC will extend the life of materials stored in the building up to 100 years beyond what would be expected in a traditional library space.

The High Pile is equipped with a high-tech fire suppression system that includes a Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus (VESDA) which will detect smoke particulates in the air, and a dry suppression system which will only dispense water to the sprinklers in the room where smoke is detected, providing maximum protection for these materials.

Art and Artifact Room

The Art and Artifact Room is a secondary climate-controlled environment designed to preserve art and artifacts that prefer a slightly higher temperature and humidity level. Items that need cooler temperatures, but could become brittle in the extreme cold and dry environment, like oil paintings and wooden artifacts, are stored in the Art and Artifacts room at 68°F and 40 percent relative humidity. The room has compact shelving and large vertical racks for hanging framed artwork.

Reading Room

The Reading Room is available by appointment with Special Collections and Archives or The Wittliff Collections to view materials onsite at the ARC. The room offers tables for research, PC workstations, a Bookeye 4 KIC image scanner, microfilm reader, a large screen TV for viewing media, small media stations with VHS, cassette tape, CD, and DVD players, and a printer.

Quarantine Room

Items brought to the ARC for storage are vacuumed, and when needed, quarantined in a walk-in freezer that drops rapidly to -24°F and holds the items at that temperature for several days. Holding items at this temperature destroys any pests, molds, contaminants or insect eggs in the materials.

Archivist Workroom

University archivists from Special Collections and Archives have a large workroom at the ARC to process new and existing archival collections and prepare materials for long-term preservation. The workroom includes preservation supplies, shelving for incoming and outgoing accessions, and workstations for handling delicate materials and ensuring safety during rehousing and transfer to preservation containers.

Processing Room

Materials at the ARC are not shelved by call number as in a traditional library. Instead, they are processed, barcoded and shelved by size to maximize space efficiently. They are then linked to catalog records through a customized system developed in collaboration with an external vendor (Caiasoft). As materials are prepared for transfer, catalog records are reviewed and enhanced, improving their discoverability despite their removal from open library shelves.