Library Thoughts Southern Illinois University

Wednesday afternoon, I attended a meeting that concerned recently raised issues about the discarding of books at Morris Library, the main campus facility for SIU. Some English department faculty, other graduate students and myself met within the context of SIUC's stated "goal" of becoming one of the "top 75 Public Research Institutions in the United States by the year 2019," when we will celebrate our 150th year as a school. It seems logical, given our "goal" that the university would spend whatever resources are necessary to UPGRADE library facilities and its holdings such as books and print journals.
Unfortunately, however, for some (seemingly undetermined) time the library has been discarding books with very little attention paid to a given book's value for the same scholars whose research will help to make SIUC one of the "top 75 Public Research Institutions in the United States by the year 2019." By almost miraculous good luck, at least 20 volumes that would otherwise have been, in the not-quite-euphemism used by the Dean of Libraries, "recycled" have been recovered and the process of discarding has (so we were told) been discontinued for the time being. One of the recovered volumes is, seemingly, one of only two paper (non-copied or computer regenerated I think) copies that remain in the entire WORLD. The Dean of Liberal Arts (God bless her) mentioned that several scholars from other universities have e-mailed her expressing concern over the discarding policies and procedures of our library.
The meeting itself lasted almost two hours, the first quarter of which was spent in listening to the Dean of Libraries discuss the progress of our years in planning, 42 (or so) million dollar renovation project currently underway. We the listeners were given detailed diagrams with multi-colored sections that designated the layout of the new facility, scheduled to be completed sometime in 2008. Part of our millions are to be spent for the installation of a Starbucks within the Library itself, presumably for the purpose of making our primary research facility more "student friendly," perhaps neglecting to remember that those of us seeking advanced degrees are students as well as teaching assistants. At the same time, however, the Dean made it clear that the newly renovated library would not have additional space for books or (presumably) print journals. His attitude in answering that question, made by one of my fellow graduate students, almost brought her to tears. In a word, he literally laughed in her face. What evidently the Library Dean means by ageeing with our university "goal" of being one of the "top 75 Public Research Institutions in the United States by the year 2019" is to spend 42 million dollars on a coffee shop, one of which we already have in the Student Center. Presumably, having two Starbucks in our university will make it easier for the attainment of our "goal" in being one of the "top 75 Public Research Institutions in the United States by the year 2019" more than the maintenance of rare volumes or the purchase of new ones.
The remainder of the meeting managed to remain a civil affair with the Dean promising that a new "policy" will soon be formulated that will clarify the existing "procedures" about book discards and "recycling." He rejected any sort of physical shelf on the first floor where faculty or students could, as a last measure, check which volumes are to be discarded as "unworkable." The Dean wants to rely upon the Area Liaisons to inform the faculty member of books or other materials that are scheduled for "recycling," asking for their input one way or another. Evidently, one person in the Library for the (in my case) entire College of Liberal Arts is somehow to remain responsible for keeping tabs on scholarship within each of its respective departments, each specialty and interest of faculty members and each area of study for even greater numbers of Masters and doctoral students. I leave it to practioners of basic logic to discern whether or not the Dean's approach of "policies, procedures and liasions," upon which he insisted, as being more "workable" than a physical space on the first floor (of a seven story building) for books to be placed before they become, seemingly, Rare Editions of toilet paper. Maybe our university's "goal" will be achieved. Maybe those who evaluate research institutions will be impressed by the taste of coffee in the Library Starbucks; they certainly will not have many books to examine.