Officials at Lauinger Library expect the building to run out of shelving space in the next two to three years and are researching alternative ways to store new additions to the library’s collection.

Phyllis Barrow, the library’s director of finances and operations, said that she and other library officials are searching for a solution that will increase space for both storage and studying, but have not yet settled on a comprehensive plan.

“We are currently looking at feasible options that would provide us with solutions to maintain our acquisitions progress for library materials and to find increased study space for students,” Barrow said.

In the meantime, the library may seek to increase its storage capacity in other locations, Barrow said. Lauinger already stores much of its collection in Riggs Library, as well at an off-campus storage facility operated by the Washington Research Library Consortium.

Lizanne Payne, the executive director of WRLC, said that eight area universities, including Georgetown, currently share the space for short-term storage. Georgetown joined the WRLC in 2004, and currently stores over 200,000 volumes in its facility.

Payne said that the WRLC facility faces a space shortage of its own, limiting Georgetown’s ability to rely on the facility for additional storage. She said all remaining shelving space at the consortium site has already been divided among the eight member universities, leaving some extra storage room for Georgetown but likely not enough to accommodate the university’s needs.

“Just like the campus libraries, our facility is running out of space,” Payne said.

Payne said that the consortium is considering building another storage site to solve its own shortage woes.

Whatever the university decides, Barrow said that discarding books is not under consideration. She added that library officials would carefully choose which items to remove from Lauinger’s on-site collection when the library runs out of storage space, in consultation with faculty, library staff and the Main Campus Library Committee, which includes undergraduate and graduate students.

“Lauinger, like any other building on campus built in the 1960s and ’70s, is approaching its capacity with regards to space,” Barrow said.

Lauinger Library has served as Georgetown’s main campus library since the completion of its construction in 1970.