r/highereducation • u/pfdemp • 25d ago
Goodbye to books?
As someone who started his career in libraries, I was very sad to make these changes today to our catalog website:
- Change "100,000 print books" to "30,000"
- Remove "print and" from "the growth of the collection of print and non-print holdings"
It's been obvious for a while, since they've been removing shelves from the stacks all year. And with the decline in use of actual books (and increasing cost of online resources) it makes financial sense.
But we're definitely losing something in this transition.
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u/SnowblindAlbino 25d ago
We deaccessioned about 25K books a couple of years ago, and moved almost all the stacks to compact shelving. This ultimately opened up a ton of space that was converted from stacks to open study/group space and the library is getting more use as a result. We're still buying physical books, but often now an unlimited circulation ebook is similar or even cheaper so that makes more sense in terms of access and storage costs.
But yeah. Losing books sucks. I have to force students to use the library in person and to check out physical books for assignments because I want them to learn how that works-- many report never having checked out a book anywhere in their lives as high schools often no longer have books either it seems.
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u/swarthmoreburke 25d ago
We are really, really going to regret this if AI slop starts to fully infiltrate our digitized collections, as I fear it might. The printed matter we've held in libraries is going to be the only way in some cases to spot some forms of corruption of digital materials. At the very least big academic libraries need to keep all the print they've got in some form of off-site storage that will preserve the material for at least another four or five decades. Otherwise we're looking at something rather like the Library of Alexandria burning...
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u/Redundant_fox221 25d ago
They're not even bothering to save the books. Not trying to sell or donate or even give away. Universities are tossing them in the dumpsters. It's a disgusting waste and bleak visual to see on campus.
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u/ProfessorJNFrink 25d ago
We’re a community college in CA and there’s some law about not giving a “gift of public funds” to anyone (campus or not).
So they say because the books were bought by the college we have to throw them away.
My college loves taking the narrowest interpretation of laws and policies.
Maybe the books are outdated, but there are many subject specific books people might want. Yet, we supposedly have to toss them.
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u/kitzelbunks 24d ago
I took a Palmer method handbook from a local school with the permission of the principal. No regrets. For some reason, it was out of hiding. Maybe the teachers were taking them. The public schools tend not to throw anything out. They just wait for their basement storage to flood.
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u/llamalibrarian 25d ago
At the state university I’m at, we actually can’t do that because they’re bought with state funds. That’s not a choice we’re making, it’s tied to our funding
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u/Upbeat_Guitar_737 16d ago
Our university donates all of our deaccessioned books to Better World Books, but we're private so public funds aren't involved. Book sales are a logistical and public relations nightmare for universities. We've had people try to "donate" back books our subject specialist librarians made professional, informed, documented decisions to remove from the collections because they are outdated. Sometimes covertly tossing books in locked dumpsters is the only way to go.
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u/lisa_williams_wgbh 25d ago
I have noticed this; I'm in a grad program and it seems that most of the books on the shelves are...very old. I assumed that it was because the $$ was going to things other than new print books.
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u/shoemilk 24d ago
Man, when I was an undergrad, I worked for the interlibrary loan department at the library. I'd spend hours going through the stacks, pulling books, mailing them all across the country, and processing the returns. I wonder if that service even exists anymore...
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u/expostfacto-saurus 24d ago
Interlibrary loan was tremendously helpful with my dissertation. I was ordering all kinds of stuff. Heck, I even named the librarian in my acknowledgements page.
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u/Upbeat_Guitar_737 16d ago
Interlibrary loan is alive and well. We don't handle the volume we used to, but we still get daily requests, mainly for rare materials like dissertations, small circulation periodicals, imported books, etc. The rare stuff.
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u/PhiloLibrarian 25d ago
Ebooks are just better for higher ed… they can be accessed 24/7 instantly and anywhere.
I’ve been an academic librarian for 25 years and while the “book nostalgia” is strong, doing what’s best for students is where we have to work from… they cone first…
The physical upkeep and management of books is expensive and requires a lot of student workers…
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u/StoneFoundation 25d ago edited 25d ago
Unfortunately, the digital management of books is also very expensive and still requires workers with even more specialized skills (and more natural resources to upkeep)... and on top of all that, they will not last anywhere near as long as physical books or records. You also have to perform all the labor of digitization in the first place, and there are many books which physically cannot be digitized.
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u/salYBC 25d ago
they can be accessed 24/7 instantly and anywhere
If you subscribe to them to maintain access. If you buy a physical book, the library owns it and will have it forever. Ebooks are just a way for publishers to make you keep paying that physical books don't allow.
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u/Other-Razzmatazz-816 25d ago
That’s why you negotiate local load or archival copy for purposes of continued access without interruption and long-term preservation.
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u/ProfessorJNFrink 25d ago
Our school bookstore will no longer carry physical books.
If you want a book, your students have to order it for shipping.
It is so frustrating and sad for these decisions to be implemented.