Because of the renovation of the Hoofdgebouw, the basement must be emptied completely by January 16. Two weeks prior to Christmas, storage company Data Space started preparing for the emptying of the 1,200-square-meter area. The shelves, with a total length of seven kilometers, were numbered and registered. The archives, containing files TU/e is required to keep, have already been transported to the airport depository.

This week, 180,000 books and 3,000 volumes of periodicals will move to the new location for the time it takes until the renovation is complete. Seven thousand times a blue moving container will be hoisted up to the ground floor in a construction elevator, carrying a meter of books each run. They’ll be taken to the Data Space trucks via the bicycle parking.

In 2013, there were more than three thousand requests for books or articles from the depository. Depository manager John Engels expects some twenty requests a week over the next few years. Data Space will deliver the requested items to MetaForum every Tuesday and Friday, meaning students and staff will have to be patient for three days at the most.