LIBRARY LAMENTATIONS (cont.)

Stackless Universities

Taylor Library - Western University (High Score on the Diversity Scale)

     I have written before about the fact that university libraries are getting rid of the printed books and journals they used to house. I think that is unfortunate and perhaps even a mistake. The increase in electronic options does not necessarily mean that there should be a decrease in the bound ones, so that all the stacks can be discarded to create social spaces for the students. I suppose, however, that the only value libraries now have is found by the administrators to be in the real estate they occupy (“location, location, location”), not in the knowledge they contained. While it is increasingly difficult to justify libraries on purely academic grounds, it would still be nice to have them around for aesthetic ones.

     I was sorry to see the stacks and the books reduced in the university libraries where I once studied and worked. I often felt that the librarians were too eagerly complicit with those interested in acquiring space that would really have little to do with anything to which the words ‘library’  or ‘librarian’ could be attached. It is no consolation, at all, to learn that the same process is happening elsewhere.

      At Harvard Law School, the Lewis International Law Center removed the library stacks and the Cabot Science Library there was “re-opened with an entirely new design and a focus on providing students with spaces in which to socialize, study, and organize meetings.” It was announced that thousands of periodicals and books were going to be removed from the Fine Arts Library at the University of Texas at Austin, and the shelves at the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia were going to be reduced by 40 to 70%. The space in the Western Libraries is also being ‘repurposed’ and “learning spaces and “makerspaces” created along with a “technology sandbox”. Undoubtedly more material will be discarded, placed in storage or shipped to the new shared storage facility located in Downsview.

   It is somewhat consoling that someone noticed that 75,000 items had been removed from the Fine Arts Library in Texas and some faculty members at the University of Virginia wrote an open letter to the Board protesting the renovation plans at the Alderman Library. Generally such opposition arises in the humanities departments which are also being downsized, so it is safe to say that such efforts will not be successful. Some of the sad details will be found by consulting the sources below.

The George Peabody Library - Johns Hopkins University

    One can lament the loss without blaming the losers. It is extremely difficult to plead for print books and journals if an administrator or accountant can almost instantly display to you on a screen whatever tome or article you request. It is even harder to convince them that there is simply something aesthetically appealing and appropriate about having lots of stacks and books. But, I think that it is a more difficult argument to refute. It would be a good thing if at least some buildings had ivy on the exterior and interiors crammed with books.


The Peabody Library Hosts Weddings

Sources:
“UVa Library’s Plan to Cut Stacks by Half Sparks Faculty Concerns,” The Chronicle of Higher Education,  Megan Zahneis, June 7, 2018.

“The Disappearance of Books Threatens to Erode Fine Arts Libraries,” Sarah E. Bond, Hyperallergic.com, March 21, 2018.
“Two major public universities have recently moved to radically downsize or entirely relocate their fine arts libraries, which is in keeping with broader trends of libraries doing away with books.”

“After Uproar, University of Texas Decides Not to Relocate Its Fine Arts Library,” Sarah E. Bond, Hyperallergic.com, April 10, 2018
“Last year, it appeared as though the bulk of the holdings of the UT-Austin Fine Arts Library would be moved but, after a concerted campaign, a plan to keep them on campus was adopted.”

Report of the Fine Arts Library Task Force, University of Texas at Austin, April 2, 2018

Western Libraries Space Master Plan

Post Script
I have to admit that it is hard to feel too sorry for the students at Harvard who can still wander through the approximately 57 miles of stacks at their Widener Library.  The same is true at Texas where the Harry Ransom Center continues to acquire more material on almost a weekly basis.

Although independent bookstores are doing better than expected, Barnes & Noble is experiencing some difficulties. Perhaps it is because, like Indigo, their stores are looking less and less like a place that actually sells books. See: "The Sad Decline of Barnes & Noble: The Iconic Bookstore Chain, by Trading Books for Cafés and Legos, Has Forgotten its Telos and Guaranteed its Downfall." Gracy Olmstead, The American Conservative, May 21, 2018.
"Barnes & Noble has long been a place of learning and love. But in its determination to innovate, it has forgotten its telos. Which means that it won’t survive much longer unless it can rediscover what made it special in the first place."

Although the 'gate count' is likely to rise in those places that were formerly actual libraries, library-like activities are surely to decline. For example, a patron  at Western University who is merely curious about a book that is listed in the library catalogue, may hesitate before asking that it be retrieved from a location in suburban Toronto.

Judging from the images provided, to which institution would you choose to send your children?

For my other thoughts on this subject:
The University Library
Actual Libraries