Weeding the O’Leary Stacks
One can argue that on a university the center of academic studies takes place in the campus library, and as a university changes, grows, and expands so does the library. With the University of Massachusetts Lowell evolving everyday so must the libraries on both campuses. However, with these changes there have been many questions from faculty and students as to what exactly is being done to the library.
The questions about what is happening to the books at O’Leary Library was first raised by a multitude of posters about campus claiming that “UML Trashes Old Books!” and that UML purges books from its stacks.
“Weeding” books is a periodical and normal process all Libraries go through. Reference Liberians work with liaisons in each academic department to keep the library up to date and change the materials in the library to meet student needs. Director of Libraries Patricia Noreau said, “Weeding is an essential to do on a periodic basis to make sure the collection is relevant and that library records are accurate.”
Noreau described this particular process as looking into books, “Published before 1985 and with no record of circulation.”
In addition it was described that only ten percent of the entire collection circulates and approximately one third of all books being weeded were duplicate copies. Acting Associate Dean Melissa M. Pennell of the College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Fine Arts, Humanities, and Social Science said about the pre 1985 publication date that it is, “not a magic date, and everything before that eliminated, but decisions [about books] being made with the faculty.”
In the weeding process involves the reference librarians going through the entire collection and looking at books and eliminating duplicate copies and books that may or may not be relevant using input from the faculty at the university.
With this weeding process is occurring at a time when plans are in the early stages to renovate the fourth floor of the O’Leary Library. The collection is on plan to be permanently moved to the Lyndon Library with some new materials and materials needed for classes being kept on South Campus. The new books and material will be purchased with $100,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Sharp criticism has come from members of the faculty at UMass Lowell. Ronald Karr, a History Librarian, pointed out that this is not normal weeding the schooling is going through, “Every library weeds books from time to time, and it is a key and necessary process, but removing books to reduce the size of the collection is unheard of.”
The current collection is being reduced in size to fit and accommodate its new location in the Lyndon Library. Dr. Karr estimated as many as half the books in O’Leary may possibly be removed.
With the books being removed there are many questions about where they are going. Books are being donated to the reseller “Got Books?” in Lawrence, Massachusetts who guarantees according to Noreau that “No book ends up in a dumpster.” “Got Books?” is a for-profit reseller who donates some of its books to charitable causes, such as troops overseas and hospitals, sells some of the received books, and then sells the remaining stock to be recycled. Noreau said that books weeded last year were given to this company and that she was looking into a possible scholarship from the company for students.
In the next issue check back for a report on what exactly is happening to the fourth floor of the O’Leary Library and other changes the library is hoping to implement to improve student library use, and a historical perspective on what happened 12 years ago to the fifth floor of O’Leary.
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