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.
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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
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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.”
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