Most Southern Illinois University students walk past Morris Library without realizing that beyond its public building is a space few ever see — one that holds the rest of Morris Library’s books. The storage houses more than 367,000 books, while the main building holds over 2 million books.

Tucked away on a different part of the campus, near the McLafferty Annex, the Morris Library storage facility houses a vast portion of the university’s collection. The area is not open for casual entry, and students cannot freely walk through the space. Instead, materials stored there can be requested through the Morris Library website and delivered for use. 

Because many of the items housed in the Morris Library storage facility are rare, fragile or historically significant, access to them is more restricted than standard library materials. While some items can be checked out for home use, others are designated for 14 days before they are returned to the shelves or be loaned for five days, like journals. 

Materials requested through interlibrary loan are carefully evaluated before being shipped, and especially rare or valuable items are typically not sent long distances, including internationally. Instead, libraries may provide digital scans or alternative editions when possible, ensuring preservation while still supporting research access.

The facility itself stretches through long, narrow hallways lined floor to ceiling with shelves of books. Spread across two climate-controlled floors, the storage area is designed to preserve materials that span centuries and continents. The collection includes maps, magazines, academic journals, children’s books, newspapers, folio-sized volumes and international publications.

Tanner Allison is a student who utilizes the library’s website and noticed that some of the books on the site are labeled “storage.” 

“Not many people know about it, and it’s kind of niche and interesting,” Allison said. “I like reading books, but I also like the physical media of a book. I’m not into the e-books…. And I like the older copies, like the used copies and the ones that have some character to them.” 

Some of the books date back as far as 1742, making the storage facility not just a place of physical preservation, but also a space of historical preservation. Walking through the aisles, the scent of a familiar, almost comforting smell associated with old books fill the air. 

Jennifer Horton is the associate dean of Morris Library. 

“We have other libraries from across the world that contact us to borrow our books because we may be the only ones who still have a copy,” Horton said. “We send books to Germany, Australia, Canada — all over the place,” which are mostly books of records and data research.

The most valuable and rare materials are kept behind locked fencing, adding another layer of protection for items that cannot be replaced. Those materials are mostly birth, deaths and marriage certificates from Illinois Regional Archive Depository court records. These safeguards ensure that the materials remain intact for future researchers, students and faculty.

The scale of the collection can be surprising, but many students remain unaware of the storage facility’s existence or how accessible its contents truly are. The Morris Library, including storage, holds over 3 million books and counting.

Frequent Morris Library attendee and student Mailee Sewell said “I wish I knew how to access it and knew it existed.”

While most students may never step inside the storage facility, its presence quietly supports research, coursework and scholarship across campus. Hidden behind secured doors and accessed with a few clicks online, Morris Library’s storage space serves as a reminder that SIU is home to far more than what meets the eye.

“We’re really proud to work for a research university and to help not just our scholars and students, but worldwide,” Horton said.

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