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Working on a group lab report for their natural resources measurements class, juniors in natural resourses Liz Montgomery, Lee Anna Young and John Atkinson use the Natural Resources Library in Jordan Hall. "I'd rather come here than D.H. Hill because all the books and resources we need are in one spot, and it would take forever to find them over there," Montgomery said. "We have a lot of group projects, and this library has more space for group work than the main library," Young said. Photo by P
A proposal to eliminate the College of Natural Resources Library due to state and University-wide budget cuts would only save money by nixing three full-time employees and eight student positions, Karen Ciccone, director of the CNR library, said.
Because the College of Natural Resources and the Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences cover the costs of the library’s location, equipment and books, Ciccone said relocating some of the library’s collection to D.H. Hill and storing others at Duke University will cut payroll expenses, not operational expenses.
“That’s really the only cost, is the staffing,” she said. “What the library pays for is the people and the books. If they closed the library, they would still be paying for the books since someone would still be selecting books for forestry, atmospheric science and geology. The place to save money would be not having staff.”
Ciccone said the library already operates on a tight budget, and staffing is staggered “so we don’t have to have as many student assistants in the evening.”
One of those student assistants is Jennifer Blue, a junior in history, who works at the library in the mornings.
“If they close the library, I’ll be out of a job,” said Blue, who has been working as an assistant for about a year and a half.
She said her mornings there are usually slow until “people start waking up and coming in around 9.”
Although the library is open to anyone, Ciccone said most of the people who use the library are undergraduate and graduate students.
“We do have people from the community who come here for the subject matter,” she said. “It’s mostly students, then faculty and occasionally staff who aren’t faculty.”
And students like Lisa Hausfather, a senior in natural resources who uses the CNR library between classes, said moving books from the library, which is nestled in Jordan Hall, to D.H. Hill would be inconvenient to those whose classes are all in Jordan Hall.
Students whose major classes are located in main campus classrooms have easier access to D.H. Hill Library than those whose classes are in Jordan Hall, which sits at the far end of main campus near Western Boulevard.
“It’s really hard to get over there if you don’t have at least an hour. It takes a while to get over there and walk back,” Hausfather said. “You’d have to have a big break between classes to walk over there and get your books.”
Checking out maps, kits and books on reserve — many of which cannot leave library premises — would make the trip even longer, Ciccone said. Students like Hausfather who need the reserve kits for class projects would need to complete all work within D.H. Hill.
“It’s really nice for the natural resource people to have a place to go on campus and everyone can get together,” Hausfather said. “In D.H. Hill there’s the commons, but it’s always so crowded and it’s hard to get a space for a big group.”
If the library is cut from the budget, Ciccone said she hopes it will be turned into a study space for students.
Although not all colleges have a library, most do have study spaces. And after Provost Larry Neilsen declared at a March 10 Faculty Senate meeting that, if the library does close, the space would be his to decide what to do with it, some students are worried the bookstacks won’t be the only things relocated.
“I’d like to see it kept as a study hall,” Hausfather said. “It’s the only place you can go and do tutoring on that side of campus. The biggest thing is the distance. Not that it’s really far away, but it definitely takes at least half an hour of walking there and back if you have to go to Jordan.”