Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 8 February 2018
A library without books? Universities purging dusty volumes

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM wound up building its own
Associated Press storage facility for 1.2 mil-
INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — A li- lion books near campus.
brary without books? Not At IUP, a state university 60
quite, but as students miles (96 kilometers) from
abandon the stacks in fa- Pittsburgh, faculty reacted
vor of online reference ma- with alarm after school of-
terial, university libraries are ficials announced a plan to
unloading millions of un- discard up to a third of the
read volumes in a nation- books.
wide purge that has some Cashdollar argued that cir-
print-loving scholars deeply culation is a poor indica-
unsettled. tor of a book's value, since
Libraries are putting books books are often consulted
in storage, contracting but not checked out. Sub-
with resellers or simply re- stantially thinning a library's
cycling them. An increas- print collection also ignores
ing number of books exist in the role of serendipity in re-
the cloud, and libraries are search — looking for one
banding together to ensure book in the stacks and
print copies are retained by stumbling upon another,
someone, somewhere. Still, leading to some new in-
that doesn't always sit well sight or approach, Cash-
with academics who prac- In a Jan. 25, 2018, photo, Dierra Rowland, 19, of Philadelphia, studies at the Indiana University of dollar and other critics say.
Pennsylvania library in Indiana, Pa., near a shelf of books marked with red stickers, meaning they
tically live in the library and might be removed from the shelves. “We’re going to throw
argue that large, readily Associated Press away as many of them as
available print collections the library can get away
are vital to research. tory or studio or clinic doors matically affected the way room of the campus," said with, which is not a strat-
"It's not entirely comfortable would be for others." students do research. Cir- Oregon State University li- egy,” said IUP history pro-
for anyone," said Rick Lugg, Though "weeding" has al- culation has been going brarian Cheryl Middleton, fessor Alan Baumler. “They
executive director of OCLC ways taken place at librar- down for years. president of the Association say they want more study
Sustainable Collection Ser- ies, experts say the pace Libraries say they needed of College and Research areas for students, but I find
vices, which helps libraries is picking up. Finances are to evolve and make better Libraries. "We're not just a it hard to believe there is no
analyze their holdings. "But one factor. Between staff- use of precious campus real warehouse." place else for students to
absent endless resources to ing, utility costs and other estate. Students still flock to It's a radical shift. Until re- study.”
handle this stuff, it's a situa- expenses, it costs an esti- the library; they're just using cently, a library's value was The library project is more
tion that has to be faced." mated $4 to keep a book it in different ways. Book- measured by the size and about responsible steward-
At Indiana University of on the shelf for a year, ac- shelves are making way scope of its holdings. Some ship of the state’s resources
Pennsylvania, the library cording to one 2009 study. for group study rooms and academics still see it that than it is an effort to free up
shelves overflow with books Space is another; libraries tutoring centers, "maker- way. space, Provost Timothy Mo-
that get little attention. A erland said.
dusty monograph on "Eco- But he understands his col-
nomic Development in leagues’ passion.
Victorian Scotland." Inter- “There are some who will
national Television Alma- never be comfortable with
nacs from 1978, 1985 and the idea of any book ever
1986. A book whose title, leaving this mortal coil,” he
"Personal Finance," sounds said.
relevant until you see the Libraries say the goal is to
publication date: 1961. make their own collections
With nearly half of IUP's col- more relevant to students
lection going uncirculated while also making sure
for 20 years or more, univer- weeded materials aren’t
sity administrators decided lost to history. A large digi-
a major housecleaning tal repository called Ha-
was in order. Using software thiTrust has commitments
from Lugg's group, they from 50 member libraries
came up with an initial list to retain more than 16 mil-
of 170,000 books to be con- lion printed volumes. An-
sidered for removal. other 6 million have been
Faculty members who preserved by the Eastern
make their living in the Academic Scholars’ Trust,
stacks voiced outrage. a consortium of 60 libraries
"Unbelievably wronghead- This Jan. 25, 2018, photo, shows books marked with red stickers, meaning they might be removed from Maine to Florida.
ed" and a "knife through from the shelves, at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania library in Indiana, Pa. An IUP faculty committee is
the heart," Charles Cash- Associated Press reviewing what Moerland
dollar, an emeritus history dryly calls the “hit list” to
professor, wrote to the are simply running out of spaces" and coffee shops, At Syracuse University, hun- make sure important works
president and provost. "For room. as libraries seek to reinvent dreds of faculty and stu- stay on the shelves. “If no-
humanists, throwing out And, of course, the digiti- themselves for the digital dents objected to a plan to body’s reading them,” she
these books is as devastat- zation of books and other age. ship books to a warehouse said, “what’s the point of
ing as locking the labora- printed materials has dra- "We're kind of like the living four hours away. The school having them?”q