Last week I had the chance to get a hardhat tour of the massive renovation project underway at my alma mater’s epicenter, Ohio State University’s (Main) Thompson Library. Lest you get the impression from my Google Books post that physical libraries are passé, the Buckeyes here provide a striking counter-example.

In classic OSU style, the scale of the project is huge, with a cost of over $108 Million and 140 full-time construction staff.

This leads to many questions. What does a hundred million dollar book house look like?  Well, you can see for yourself on this University webcam, right now during daylight hours it looks like a Bob the Builder episode.  Click through the image above or here for the tour photos.

Also, what are the defining requirements of systems that are suitable for use in such a large environment?  How well do their current implementations fulfill them, and how well does Koha compare?

[update] Added links. [/update]