Yale Library collections available for borrowing will effectively double in July

July will be a good month to request a book from Yale Library—and you’ll have about twice as many titles to choose from.

Beginning in July, more than 12 million books and other research materials from Columbia University, Harvard University, the New York Public Library, and Princeton University will be newly visible in Yale Library’s Quicksearch discovery tool and available for the Yale community to borrow on the same terms as the approximately 12 million items in Yale’s general collections.

Sharing collections through ReCAP

Access to the materials will be through Yale’s membership in the nonprofit Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP), announced last summer. Yale Library users will gain access to 8.8 million titles that Yale does not own, and Yale will bring to the consortium’s shared collection 2.7 million items that no other consortium partner currently owns.

Over the past four months, a team of library staff and consultants have been immersed in the technical details and workflows needed to bring all the titles from the full shared collection into Quicksearch.

When this work is completed, Yale users will be able to request scans and physical materials through Quicksearch in the same way that they now request materials from Yale’s off-site Library Shelving Facility (LSF) in Hamden. The anticipated turnaround time for delivery of materials from the shared collection to Yale will be two days—the same as for materials stored at LSF. Loan periods and renewals for materials will align with Yale Library policies as well.

“ReCAP’s shared collection model is a huge benefit for our users because it allows us to focus on access to library materials rather than ownership,” said Barbara Rockenbach, Stephen F. Gates ’68 University Librarian. “In a time of tighter collection budgets, ReCAP will help us maintain our commitment to print collections while, effectively, doubling the size of our research collections.” 

Looking to the future

Yale Library titles will be added to the catalogues of the other institutions after borrowing by Yale has been launched. Users from the consortium’s member institutions will be able to request and borrow Yale materials through ReCAP in the second half of 2027.

In the future, Yale will move lower-use general-collection materials to ReCAP’s collaboratively managed repository on Princeton’s Forrestal Campus. The Princeton repository currently holds more than 18 million items and provides scanning and two-day delivery of about 240,000 items a year to consortium members.

Although it will likely be several years before Yale requires storage capacity in Princeton, the option is critical for long-term collection planning. “Only general-collection materials would be stored at the shared repository, allowing us to prioritize our local storage for our archival and special collections,” Rockenbach said.

Another advantage of the consortium is the opportunity for ReCAP members to coordinate collecting plans in some areas. Plans exist or are being considered for Slavic and East European materials, Italian and German imprints, and Chinese-language print serials, among others.

Read more about ReCAP and watch a video about its holdings and facilities.

—Patricia M. Carey

Image: Aisle of stored materials in the Yale University Library Shelving Facility in Hamden, photo by Robert Lisak