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Subject: Re: MAPS-L: Academic libraries empty stacks for online centers
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005
From: Brian Bach <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]


All,

In my opinion, this sort of pathway (indicated in the story link below)
is a perfect example of the rash decisions now being made in many
resource institutions. In witnessing such choices, one has to wonder if
a complete callousness for the future happens to result from supposedly
'practical' decisions in the present.

Question: are we going to preserve this thing we call 'civilization'
(as we know it today), or not? For some bizarre and pathetic reason, I
still cling to the concept that libraries just might possibly be
involved in establishing and sustaining a semblance of stability and
sanity, particularly in a world which, as evidence every day
demonstrates, happens to be at a crossroads.

Non-cynically (honest!) yours,

Brian

Brian P. Bach
Documents/Maps
Brooks Library
Central Washington University
400 E. University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7548
USA
[log in to unmask]

>>> [log in to unmask] 08/23/05 9:26 AM >>>
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Subject: Academic libraries empty stacks for online centers
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005
From: Edward James Redmond <[log in to unmask]>
To: Maps-L

Full story here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0823/p01s05-legn.html

Academic libraries empty stacks for online centers
By Kris Axtman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

AUSTIN, TEXAS - When students wander into the former University of
Texas
undergraduate library this fall, gone will be the "Quiet Please"
signs,
the ban on cheeseburgers or sodas, the sight of solemn librarians
restocking books.

The fact is, there will be no more books to restock. The UT library is
undergoing a radical change, becoming more of a social gathering place
more akin to a coffeehouse than a dusty, whisper-filled hall of
records.
And to make that happen, the undergraduate collection of books had to
go.


Edward James Redmond <[log in to unmask]>
The Library of Congress
Geography and Map Division
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540

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