SU Library Petition and the Open Forum

In November 2009, there was a petition in Bird Library, Syracuse University, where university undergrads and graduate students were protesting against the library's plan to move some of its collections to 4 house away warehouse in Patterson.

The reason for moving the books is the limited space of the library. Library needs space for collaboration, learning commons, computer use, and also stacks for new books. The library intended to remove those books which haven't been checked out in a certain period of time(a year or so) and the idea was"if nobody read the book, why we still keep it here when the space could be used for other purposes?"

And for people who want to check out the books in the warehouse, they can request the books through library services and the books will be delivered in 24 hours if requested before 2 pm. According to the library, if the book is checked out 2 or 3 times in a month, they should be considered of returning to Bird.

For the protesters, such method eliminates the ability to "BROWSE" materials and creates environmental problems due to the daily transportation of the books. "You have to know exactly what you are looking for", said the flyer of the petition. The argument also focused on the selection of "unused books" fearing it may lose the value of "discovering something new" since people will no longer have the opportunity to browse and "rediscover"the materials that scarcely known. And the removal of books may increase the ignorance of minority groups.

In response to the petition, the library held an open forum "What is a Library" in Peter Graham Scholarly Commons, Bird Library on Dec, 9, 2009 and the notes of the forum could be retrieved here. All the participants, including students and faculty, showed concern about the library as well as the community of Syracuse University and appreciated the opportunity to participant in the development of Bird.

The participants shared stories of their experiences with Bird library, opinions about the future of library and proposed suggestions and alternatives for the current situation. I am listing some of the ideas and the full version could be found here.

The suggestions include:

• Use abandoned buildings in Downtown Syracuse instead of warehouse in Patterson.
• Reconsider the use of library basement, first and second floor which are mainly used for collaboration spaces now.
• Reconsider the use of spaces in Schine student center, could be used for learning commons and tutoring services.

The common agreements:

• Faculty and students need enough resources to do academic research.
• Need more communication between departments and library.
• Faculty and students should be involved in the decision making of the library.

Questions will be discussed in the future:

• The reason that library needs more space, space allocation.
  
• Mandate from faculty committee.
• University priorities.

SU Bird Library has been through a hard time last year with 24 employers lost due to the budget cut. We have excellent staff here in Bird and they are doing their best to make it a better place for SU community. Again, appreciate your effort and the open and transparent environment.