OhioLINK pitching, recycling thousands of books to save space

Ohio book depositories, including one at Ohio State, are throwing away or recycling thousands of reference books to make room on overcrowded shelves.

Administrators say they have to toss the books because they don't have enough money to buy more storage space. But money woes aside, some historians and students are dismayed by the decision.

"I think it's an absolutely terrible policy for us to pursue as the flagship university in Ohio," said Kevin Boyle, an OSU history professor. "You can't measure the quality of a book or the quality of a library collection as a popularity contest.

"We understand to have a first-rate football team we need to have first-class equipment. The same goes for scholarship. We need the resources on this campus to be a great research institution."

There are five book depositories, including one at OSU, in the OhioLINK system — a collaboration of university libraries that gives students access to other schools' books. Those collections add up to almost 10 million volumes.

Several thousand volumes are being removed because there is not enough money to create more space for books, said Anita Cook, director of OhioLINK systems.

To alleviate the space issue and help keep some of the older materials, most of the information is being digitized, said Stacy Brannan, OhioLINK's marketing and communications coordinator.

Though many volumes can be recycled, those with glue binding cannot, she said.

The new policy of "de-duplication" — disposing of duplicate copies — reduces the number of books available, leaving two copies. One is for circulation, and the other is archived.

Boyle said that's not enough.

"We have no assurance that those electronic versions are even going to be readily available," he said. "If it's on the shelf, a book is always available."

Sujin Kim, a fourth-year in welding engineering, is concerned that digitizing books might not be environmentally friendly.

"The problem is that when you digitize books, if you put your course work online or your textbook, most people have a copy that they can hold," she said. "So even if you digitize a copy, people are still printing them, so you're not reducing the usage of paper."

The first cycle of de-duplication is near completion, and another is set to start in January.

Brannan said officials are trying to donate old material, but few people or groups have interest in the old volumes.

Cook said most of the materials thrown away are outdated and never used and that it's the library's discretion to choose which materials are sent to a depository.

"Think of them as old encyclopedias," Brannan said, "things people would reference to see what people were thinking of back then, but they're not updated."

Boyle contends that the policy will put undergraduate students at a disadvantage.

"When they get an assignment or do an honors thesis, they need the collections, not just professors," Boyle said.

Dona Straley, statewide coordinator for library depositories, said she has heard the same complaints before.

"We hear these concerns every day. Our depositories do have in them materials that aren't frequently used, and in many cases they're outdated," Straley said. "They're valuable for research but not for students who need the most current information."

Straley described the criticism as a "culture issue."

"What's in books is our culture, our civilization. The idea that we may let that slip away is something that strikes to our very core, and when you start talking about these things, that's what people hear," Straley said. "They don't necessarily hear the part that says we're doing this deliberately. We're making sure we retain copies in the state of Ohio."

At OSU, outdated books need to be moved to the depository to make way for new ones, said Larry Allen, program coordinator for university libraries.

"We added 127,000 items to our collection last year," Allen said. "We don't want to stop buying new stuff."