Robot library.

This is really cool. I've never seen a reading room that didn't have any bookshelves in it; most of the special collections I've been to have had locked shelves or reference works in the main space. I'd love to stand in that room and see if it feels right for reading. Also interesting that, with this setup, “browsing” can only happen in the browser, so to speak. Everything but the reading has been pushed back behind a computer interface. Not that this is too different from non-robotic closed stacks from the patron's perspective.

(Via Alan Jacobs, of course.)