Library Shenanigans

JSTOR withdrawals igloo

Tutt Library is in the process of discarding bound journals now available in JSTOR and backed up electronically and in hard copy in multiple locations in the state and the country. Last night, somebody — or more likely somebodies (students? we don’t know) pulled hundreds of them out of the dumpster and built an igloo-like structure in the parking lot.

It’s beautiful, I think, and a fitting monument to progress and the future and all that stuff. It’s sad, too, and in the few minutes I stood near the igloo I heard wistful comments from passers-by, even some anger or disappointment that the library would throw these things away. I found myself defending the library’s decision, but feeling a mixture of emotions as I did so. Frustration at how bad we are at explaining ourselves, love and affection for the people who feel love and affection for these materials. A feeling of helplessness.

Why do people assume that libraries and librarians hate books (or bound journals) and can’t wait to get rid of them? We went into this field because we love books, most of us. But we have to care more about the students and researchers who use our libraries, and we have to try to do what’s best for them. For a long time that meant taking flimsy journals and magazines and binding them, making them into solid book-like objects that would last a long time. Now it’s a new paradigm, and we’re making the texts in those journals available via the internet. We don’t like throwing out the bound journals, but we have to make room for other things in the library. We receive something like 6000 new books a year. The library building isn’t getting any bigger, but our collections are growing and growing …

Ah, I’m doing it again. I’m defending our decision — which I should do, as a librarian. But let’s talk about the shenanigan. It’s a well-built piece of art, and does just what art should do. It moves us, surprises us, makes us see things in a new way for a moment. And makes us see other things besides itself in a new way for a while.

Whoever has to put all the journals back in the dumpster probably won’t appreciate it, though. And I hope it doesn’t rain.

Addendum, Thursday, July 15: I should make clear that the bound journals get recycled. And I can report that the library staff worked together on Wednesday to get the volumes back into the dumpster before the rain hit.

Further addendum, November 2: One of the culprits/artists who involved tells me that a CC student and two alumni built the “crater/kiva/igloo” in about three hours, completing the project just before dawn. The student remarks: “I apologize if the book-toss was more work than it was worth. I fully understand the practical reasons for tossing the books, as well as the aesthetic, tactile, and conceptual beauty of ‘the book’ (both in the platonic sense and as physical/individual objects). Very rarely is one presented the opportunity to work with such a quantity of anything, let alone a medium as interesting and iconic.”

July 14, 2010 at 3:29 pm 3 comments