Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 21, 1978)
Libraries: Symposium views alternatives to cop© with too many books Give me a library, and ill build a university around it. - Benjamin Ide Wheeler, University of Califor nia president 1899. Six university administrators, librarians and professors consi dered the advisability of central storage as an answer to the Uni versity library's shelving crisis Thursday curing the library sym posium. The symposium was called to clarify the implications of remote library storage and other issues that will affect the future of the University’s research library. At the present rate of new aquisitions, the library will be forced to “stack books in the aisles” three years from now unless some alternative form of storage is implemented, according to library Dean William Axford. The University has a national reputation as one of the major re search institutions in the country, but it’s library is comparatibely small. While the University of Chicago can boast possession of the largest academic research lib rary building in the country for a student population of 8,000 and Harvard maintains a collection of works now numbering around 10 million, the University library pre sently houses slightly less than 1.4 million works. Faculty members have voiced outrage at the prospect of remov ing works from the library and placing them in a central storage facility. They contend that it would slow down the research process and generally reduce accessibility to the works. In addition, the facil ity would be shared with the other state system libraries. ^HsurLoffc for Men amj Women ^//4« Put Sx n§ in Your Hair Spring means new life and a cut from the Hairloft means new life for your hair! A natural, easy-care style from the Hairloft leaves your hair looking alive and sparkling in the sunshine! Why be a dead head when you can put Spring in your hair at the Hairloft!? 606-(496 435-1202. I 2033 iMlametfe 1232 AUef* | (amzw from I Marneteflaza) Sacred Heart) 464*2565 1461 E. \9± (nextthe ^iant<3rinaer) r Stories by MELODY WARD Of the Emerald State system librarians have presented the chancellor with a proposal recommending that such a remote storage facility be estab ished at a former military base [Camp Adair) located some 50 niles north of Eugene. Cost of the proposed Camp ^dair facility is estimated at about 5400,000. Other alternatives aeing considered by the Univer sity include expanding the existing ibrary, and increasing on-campus storage without new construction. Speakers included Frederick Jackson, director of the Commit tee on Institutional Cooperation of the Big Ten Universities; Gor don Williams, executive director of the Center for Research Libraries; Donald Swain, vice president for academic affairs of the University of California; John Schaefer, pres ident of the University of Arizona; Stanley McElderry, director of the University of Chicago library; and Warren Hollister, professor of his tory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Faculty and students are en couraged to participate in an open forum session today from 9 a m. until 12 noon in the Robinson Theatre in Villard Hall. Thursday’s speakers will field questions and debate the issues facing the lib rary with the audience. PRO: Central storage would be a blessing’ An exponentially increasing rate of publication and expansion of research interests, combined with the fact that publications ac cumulate over time without being replaced by new ones, was cited as the major factor behind the cur rent storage problem facing uni versities nationwide. To meet the growing demand for library space, the advantages of central storage were outlined by Jackson, Williams and Swain. “Libraries have had a goal of self-sufficiency,” Williams said. “Usually the purpose of the library is thought to be to collect and keep books and periodicals." However, Williams said that now the fundamental purpose of libraries is to provide ready ac cess to needed materials. "It doesn't make any difference where the book is,” he remarked “What really counts is speed of access." Bigger does not necessarily guarantee ready access Williams NEXT BEER GARDEN Friday, April 28th 4-7:00 ENTERTAINMENT, FOOD!!! bud on tap 12 oz glass pitcher $1.50 To get the pictures of your pals out of your camera — a photofinishing sale. added, citing Harvard study which showed that its eight million vol ume collection met patron needs less effectively than when it was half that size. Reasons for the decline in effec tiveness usually fall into these areas: the book is presently checked out, at the bindery, lost or stolen, or simply mis-shelved. Williams said that patronage of the library follows a pattern in which roughly half the time, a book is not available for one of those reasons. Universities can no longer af ford to expand at the same pace as book aquisitions, according to Jackson. He advocated central storage on the national and regional levels, at least for periodicals. ‘‘Studies are unanimous in their conclusions that most periodicals fa'll into the little or never used category," he said. "I think the case for a national library for books could be argued in a similar manner.” Either the Library of Congress or the Central Research Center will take on the storage of little used periodicals sometime in the near future according to Jackson. Jackson said central storage libraries would specialize in books that get limited use and would "be a blessing" to those scholars whose research requires such works because ‘they would all be under one roof.” He explained that students and faculty would determine what the contents of their library would be by “the indelible record” of their usage of it. But circulation statistics don't accurately represent library useage. “In other cases the user i simply wants to go to the library and browse,” Williams said. “We actually know very little about browsing use. We need to know more — there's no question of its importance." Scholars contend that browsing is an essential part of the research process, and wish to keep “infre quently used" books on campus for that reason. Williams admitted that browsing is probably more frequent among those titles that are not used often. But he estimated that roughly two percent of the “browsing use" would be lost if the “infrequently used” books were in storage. The University faces similar problems to those of the Univer sity of California campuses, ac cording to Swain. “We are on the same track,” he said. "It remains to be seen whether the light we in California see at the end of the tunnel is the light, or a freight train bearing down on us at high speed, however.” Swain said some myths about lihrarips M/ere disoelled durina the system-wide debate concerning the future of the UC libraries “Just because a book is housed on campus doesn't mean it is readily accessible, even though it is supposed to be there, he cautioned. Library policy, Swain stressed, is too important to be ‘left soley to librarians. Student, faculty and taxpayer intertests are all in volved." Swain added that larger con siderations do occasionally over ride local ones. "A stand-alone position is less and less defensi ble,” he said. “Your argument to the state to expand the campus library will be strengthened if stor age is in use.” 12 exp. Color Film developing & printing $1.99 20 exp. Color Film developing & printing $2.99 ASA 400 — 10# more 24 exp. Color Film developing & printing $3.39 ASA 400 — 300 more 20 exp. 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