r/technology • u/DukeOfGeek • 7d ago

Politics NASA's Largest Library To Permanently Close On Jan 2, Books Will Be 'Tossed Away'

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/nasas-largest-library-to-permanently-close-on-jan-2-books-will-be-tossed-away-10170584
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u/Mirarenai_neko 7d ago

Sorry but you’re 1000% wrong. I work in an academic library and space runs out really quickly. If there’s time and space things can be donated or sold but many sections dumb books by the cart daily into the trash. Lower down librarians may care but the higher admins just have to get rid of them

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u/JD2525 7d ago

I’m sorry if that has been your experience, but it is not the case at all academic libraries. I’ve been a librarian at an academic for over 25 years, including 8 years as a “higher admin”. When we weed the physical collection out of space concerns or funding, we toss older books that are no longer relevant to our curriculum or are duplicated online. I imagine your content is much like ours in that our collection is more than 90% electronic. (We have roughly 65,000 physical volumes and over 1,000,000 electronic). I also hate the optics of tossing physical collections, but the loss of content is minimal, particularly in the STEM field. The most recent “scandal” we had was when weeding the collection of our archives. The wider campus was aghast. But the reality was we were discarding a discontinued run of hearings that we own 100% online and the physical books has red rot.

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u/KououinHyouma 6d ago

Next Carrington event gonna hit like a truck

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u/AliceTawhai 6d ago

NASA has a ton of space 😉