The Daily OrangeSU halts Bird Library book removal
By Abram Brown
Posted: 11/19/09, 1:50 AM EST Section: News
The plan to ship 100,000 books per year out of Bird Library has been put on hold, said Pam McLaughlin, Bird communications and external relations director.
The library's plan to start sending books to a storage facility four hours away has come under fire during the past two weeks, leading to a student-led protest at the Nov. 11 University Senate meeting. Under the original plan, students would have to wait 24 to 48 hours to receive a library book from the off-campus facility in Paterson, N.Y.
The reaction from both Syracuse University students and faculty played a large role in suspending the original initiative, McLaughlin said Wednesday.
Savanna Kemp, a junior English and textual studies and women's and gender studies major, helped lead the student-driven press on SU to cancel the plan.
"The fact that they put their current plan on hold is extremely pleasing," Kemp said. "It just didn't seem like students were consulted or even informed."
Kemp first learned of the university's now-stalled plan two weeks ago. "A professor told us in class, and that sort of started a rebellion," Kemp said Wednesday. "I brought it up in a few more classes and found out that no one knew about it, but everyone was concerned about it. It's been a real whirlwind."
After Wednesday's announcement, both Kemp and SU are left wondering what development will be next for Bird.
For SU, Bird librarians and SU's Dean of Libraries Suzanne Thorin will begin to look at different ways to meet Bird's space issues, McLaughlin said. In Bird, the shelves are 98 percent full and need to be closer to 75 percent full, she said.
"We're looking to see if we can't come up with an alternative plan," McLaughlin said.
No timetable has been set to develop a new initiative. While balancing scarce funding, Bird will consider a number of possibilities:
* Shelves could be added to the third, fourth and fifth floors.
* A complex reorganization of some of the library's collection could happen, too. This would include clearing out space for new shelves, taking down walls and moving collections around in Bird.
The library's plan to start sending books to a storage facility four hours away has come under fire during the past two weeks, leading to a student-led protest at the Nov. 11 University Senate meeting. Under the original plan, students would have to wait 24 to 48 hours to receive a library book from the off-campus facility in Paterson, N.Y.
The reaction from both Syracuse University students and faculty played a large role in suspending the original initiative, McLaughlin said Wednesday.
Savanna Kemp, a junior English and textual studies and women's and gender studies major, helped lead the student-driven press on SU to cancel the plan.
"The fact that they put their current plan on hold is extremely pleasing," Kemp said. "It just didn't seem like students were consulted or even informed."
Kemp first learned of the university's now-stalled plan two weeks ago. "A professor told us in class, and that sort of started a rebellion," Kemp said Wednesday. "I brought it up in a few more classes and found out that no one knew about it, but everyone was concerned about it. It's been a real whirlwind."
After Wednesday's announcement, both Kemp and SU are left wondering what development will be next for Bird.
For SU, Bird librarians and SU's Dean of Libraries Suzanne Thorin will begin to look at different ways to meet Bird's space issues, McLaughlin said. In Bird, the shelves are 98 percent full and need to be closer to 75 percent full, she said.
"We're looking to see if we can't come up with an alternative plan," McLaughlin said.
No timetable has been set to develop a new initiative. While balancing scarce funding, Bird will consider a number of possibilities:
* Shelves could be added to the third, fourth and fifth floors.
* A complex reorganization of some of the library's collection could happen, too. This would include clearing out space for new shelves, taking down walls and moving collections around in Bird.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 7
John
posted 11/19/09 @ 8:22 AM EST
I'm glad to see that this plan is on hold. I hope it is discarded completely. Trying to make a major research library into a Starbucks is just wrong. The Schine Student Center is just next door to Bird. (Continued…)
Kaylen Thorpe
posted 11/19/09 @ 9:50 AM EST
I have a supreme reverence for books and the knowledge they contain. But lets be real: when was the last time you were in the library and actually saw somebody READING a BOOK? And even more, when was the last time you saw them reading a book they got off the shelf and didn't just bring in with them? When was the last time you saw somebody taking a book out from the library? Clearly you haven't looked in the back of these books, to see that the last time most were withdrawn was in the 80s or 90s. (Continued…)
brownrose
brownrose
posted 11/19/09 @ 10:01 PM EST
Congratulations to the students who disputed this decision of the library on your (and all the students') victory. Thank you for all your hard work on our behalf. (Continued…)
Post a Comment