The Robot will get that for you . . . the University of Chicago's High-Tech Library

The Chronicle of Higher Education explores the University of Chicago's incredible underground stacks where books are shelved and retrieved by a complex robotic system.

". . . David N. Borycz, project manager at the library, demonstrates what happens when a patron wants an item. He uses the online library catalog to request a dissertation, "God's Gardeners," by David Kenneth Larsen. A few clicks and it's in the retrieval queue. Then a nearby door slides open. One of the five mechanical cranes has delivered up the bin to a small loading dock. And there, tucked among a series of other bound maroon volumes, is Mr. Larsen's dissertation. 

It all takes about three minutes."