Books are no longer overflowing on the shelves in the Main Library, now that a $500,000 electronic moving shelf system has been installed.

Shelving space was becoming so limited in some areas of the Main Library that many books had to be shelved on top of others, or on the top- and bottom-most shelves, said Steve Llewellyn, library supervisor.

As a result, it was becoming difficult to find and reach books, he said.

The shelving system increases the capacity of the shelves makes it possible to put twice as many books in one given area. This better accommodates library workers and students without losing seating space, Llewellyn said.

After the shelves were put in, the library staff moved most of the material from the fifth floor to the new compact shelving area on the first floow, he said.

The area now holds all of the books classified by the Dewy Decimal system, except for material with call numbers in the 500 and 600 range, which are located in the Science-Engineering Library. Selected books organized by Library of Congress call numbers also are located in the new area.

Library staff tried to move the least-used material to the area, Llewellyn said.

Book shelves are mobilized along six tracks and have large stop, arrow and reset buttons, on each aisle to control movement.

Even though the button points left and right it is somewhat complicated to learn how to use the controls. The aisles do not move left when the left arrow is pushed nor right when the right button is pushed. Instead, an aisle is created by pushing the center of the two arrows on the shelf nearest to the spot where an aisle is to be created.

Directions, telling people how to make an aisle, are posted on each shelf.

People may fear the automated system will squish them to death in between the aisles, Llewellyn said, but enough safety features have been built into the system to make sure that doesn't happen.

The arrow button, which is normally green, turns red if pushed when a person is already in the aisle, and the aisle will remain still. Also, if the shelves are in the 10-second process of creating a new aisle and a person attempts to walk though, the shelves automatically stop.

At first, the electronic moving shelves were intimidating, said Iliana Angel, a student library worker.

Now, however, "I feel pretty safe," she said, pointing out the safety sensors in the floor of the aisles.

One student leaving the area, commented that it was "pretty high tech in here."

The 48 shelves were installed in November and December. The area became operational in January, but "as with any new system, the need to work out the bugs" existed, Llewellyn said.

The safety system was constantly making the shelves immobile by turning the whole shelving system off, he said.

Llewellyn said the library staff found they needed to reset the system more often than expected.

About three weeks ago, technicians from Space Saver, the shelving vendor, fine-tuned the system by adding new sensor chips. Since then, the aisles have been working correctly, he said.

Space Saver compact shelving is used in libraries nationwide. Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, John Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin and Cornell University are some of the schools using the system.

So far no definite plans to add more compact shelving in the Main Library exist, Llewellyn said.

In three to five years, however, as the library's collection grows, more of the moving, space-saving shelves may be installed..

Llewellyn said some may soon be put into the Science-Engineering Library.

The system is efficient and the signs directing students are concise, Angel said.

Jimmy Vincent, a business and public administration freshman, disagreed, calling the system completely confusing.