Six Ivy League libraries are in the process of establishing a central storage library to take little-used research volumes off their own sholves and make a glant pool of material available to all scholars.

Keyes D. Metcalf, director of the University Library, initiated the project in 1948, and the other five librarians delegated him last month to draw up the first set of concrete proposals for presentation at their fourth mesting, scheduled for some time in April.

Representatives from the Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Pennsylvania, Columbia, as well as the Library of Congress and New York Public Library have agreed to four principles for the storage library:

Accessibility is Crucial

1. It will be situated along the main coastal railroad line for easiest access by all contributors.

2. Participating institutions will finance all its activities.

3. The library will conduct active cataloguing operations, develop exhaustive special collections and advise members to avoid duplication on buying.

4. It will be open to visiting researchers and will maintain an "overnight" lending arrangement, filling mailed requests within 24 hours.

"Universities may grow each year arithmetically," Metcalf says, "but libraries grow geometrically." A research library doubles its size every 20 years, according to Metcalf.

Getting Cramped

All of the six university libraries considering the project have more than 1,000,000 volumes. Cornell's and Pennsylvania's collections are so cramped that new buildings are already on their way. Yale and Columbia are running short on space, but have enough for at least two or three years' growth at the present rate.

Princeton is in the best shape, with its recently constructed $6,500,000 building. Harvard, Metcalf says, has room for another nine or ten years' accumulation, but a new central library at that time might cost $25,000,000.

The planning committee for the cooperative storage library has not decided on any figures or definite commitments, but Metcalf predicts the first building will be built to house close to 2,000,000 volumes. It will be designed so it can be easily expanded and connected to additional buildings in the future.

Rurely Location Likely

The library will probably not be located in the same city as one of the contributors, to avoid the possibility of jealousy for the prestige it would bring. At this stage it seems most likely a country site will be chosen to allow unlimited expansion at low land prices.