Library closure discussed at forum
Jordan Hall's library could close to help University conserve funds
Published: Monday, March 9, 2009
Updated: Sunday, April 26, 2009
The College of Natural Resources held its second forum to further discuss budget cuts that would impact the college's library in Jordan Hall Monday.
The University is considering closing down the Natural Resources library and integrating it into D.H. Hill library in an effort to cut costs.
Susan Nutter, vice-provost and Director of Libraries Administration, Robert Brown, College of Natural Resources dean, Carolyn Argentati, associate vice provost and Deputy Director of Libraries, and Terry Hill, assistant to the vice provost and Director of Libraries Administration, facilitated the discussion.
Vice-Provost Nutter opened the forum by assuring that she was not in support of the library's possible closure.
"I'm on your side," Nutter said. "I don't want to close this library."
In order to accommodate budget cut scenarios, Nutter said many ideas were considered aside from closing the library, including charging money for interlibrary loan books or merging the digital media lab with the Learning Commons.
Another scenario considered was cutting up to 500 journal titles, and merging some of the three smaller satellite libraries with D.H. Hill.
Argentati said the current proposal is to cut $525,000 from the budget, or reduce 26 percent of books and journals per student. Under this proposal, the number of journals would be cut by 10 percent.
Some attendants were moved to tears by the idea of closing the library. Many professors said having the NRL in the building was one of the reasons they chose to come to N.C. State. One professor said the tour of the library was essential to his recruitment process.
Students in attendance voiced concerns about the lack of study space in the three main CNR buildings.
Sarah Watts, a senior in fisheries and wildlife sciences said she would miss the convenience of the library if it were closed.
"I really like it over here on this side of campus because a lot of my classes are over here," Watts said. "It's a good place to study and I've done lots of projects with groups and stuff like that. It stinks having to walk all the way across campus and all the way back."
Nate Osborne, a senior in forestry management, agreed.
"I think that it's a real bad use of the resources that we have on campus [to close the NRL], because we already are very limited here and all students, natural resources and other programs which are situated on this side of campus, are areas where we can access information and collaborate with other students and also just have a place to spend 30 minutes to just go down and hop on the computer, or pull out a book that you're researching," Osborne said. "Since we're so far situated here and already isolated on campus it's difficult for teachers to put something on reserve for us [at D.H. Hill.] [With the NRL in Jordan, I don't have to walk 30 minutes to get there."
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