printable versionSenate approves proposal for library feasibility study
BY KATHLEEN J. SULLIVAN
The Faculty Senate last week approved a proposal to analyze the cost and feasibility of revitalizing Stanford's library system by improving the Socrates digital catalog, renovating Green Library to provide rooms for research projects, and building a state-of-the-art library—a home for digital as well as print media—in the center of campus.
The study, approved in a unanimous voice vote Thursday, will focus special attention on the need to establish a new home on campus—temporary and permanent—for the East Asia collection housed in Meyer Library, which is slated for demolition in about 10 years.
The Committee on Libraries developed the proposal, which contains more than a dozen recommendations, and will collaborate with Stanford University Libraries on the study.
"During this process, Stanford University Libraries should consult with the Budget Office, the Capital Planning and Management Group, and other relevant offices of the university," as well as deans, development personnel and student leaders, the proposal said.
The committee will monitor the progress of the study, advise Provost John Etchemendy and University Librarian Michael Keller on implementing the recommendations, and present a report to the senate by the end of the 2009-10 academic year.
The study is the latest development in a saga that began about a year ago, when university officials announced plans to tear down Meyer Library, replace it with a smaller building devoted to academic computing, and move some of the East Asia collection into Green Library—displacing some of that library's existing collections—and the rest into storage in Livermore.
The announcement raised alarms on campus, especially among faculty members who use the East Asia Library and Green Library as their major research libraries. In response, the senate formed a subcommittee to examine the issues raised by the announcement and to explore the impact of digital information technologies on the research environment at Stanford.
The study proposed by the Committee on Libraries is based on the subcommittee's report.
During last week's meeting, Etchemendy praised the proposal, saying he and President John Hennessy support the study. He warned that the "hard questions" would come later when the cost and feasibility studies are completed, and tradeoffs—such as devoting space on campus to a new library or to another academic building—must be weighed.
"The committee can certainly look at the numbers and say, 'Well, here's how much it will cost,'" Etchemendy said. "But will the committee be able to say, 'And furthermore, that investment is the investment the institution wants to make?' Without knowing what the other side is, what we are not doing because we're doing that, you can't make a sensible decision."
Keller also applauded the committee's work.
"As I said at the town hall meeting last week, this report validates and verifies things that we are doing, things that we are trying to do, and things that we would like to do," Keller said. "So it has, despite some of the criticism [of the library system], my full support and the support of those who are responsible for the libraries."
Luukas Ilves, a student member of the Committee on Libraries, said the ASSU Undergraduate Senate unanimously endorsed the committee's recommendations on Nov. 4.
"To the extent that these recommendations apply to grad students in addition to faculty, they also end up percolating down to the best undergraduates doing novel research," said Ilves, a senior majoring in philosophy and a member of the Undergraduate Senate.
Michael Marrinan, a professor of art and art history and a member of the Committee on Libraries, told the senate that scholars doing research in non-Roman languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean, need physical access to research materials to do their research.
"These are characters that can be photographed, but they can't be read by machines, which means that you can get pages and images of characters, but you can't search those characters," Marrinan said. "Which means that the so-called digital scans of this material are largely useless unless you know what you're looking for."
Matthew Sommer, an associate professor who teaches Chinese history, said the Asian Languages Department unanimously endorsed the recommendations.
"We're not Luddites," Sommer said. "We have benefited in various way from new technologies. We want to make sure that any changes that take place [will not interrupt] our teaching and research mission. We hope any changes will enhance our mission."
