http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/speedy-wall-crawling-conveyor-system-will-now-deliver-books-new-york-public-library-180960549/
There's already a much better thread on this, with the appropriate technical details that justify that cost.
You haven't spent much time in the NYPL (other than perhaps to use the access computers), have you? If you knew the structure of the building, and the ways the system operates to facilitate transfer of materials between divisions and levels, you might marvel more that the cost was so reasonable.
For 2.6 Million how big of a Lionel Train Set could I build?
In early October, The New York Public Library will unveil a new book delivery system that features 24 cars, running on 950-feet of vertical and horizontal track, moving millions of books through 11 different levels of the library, at a rate of 75 feet per minute. This new $2.6 million book transport system replaces a clunkier old one where “boxes of research materials were placed on a series of conveyor belts.”
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