LIBRARIES are being asked to back a scheme that would result in hundreds of thousands of journals and academic books being pulped.
The shortage of shelf space at university libraries is so severe that a central archive is planned to house academic works for all institutions. The National Research Reserve, run by the British Library, would hold and distribute all academic works held in re- search libraries, allowing librarians to destroy material knowing that another copy was available.
But some librarians fear that throwing out duplicate copies risks losing decades of knowledge to fire or flood. Ronald Milne, acting director of Oxford University Library, said it would be foolish to reduce the store of copies. “Think of the Wallace and Gromit factory,” he said. “One fire and it all goes up in smoke.” And Peter Fox, a university librarian at Cambridge, said: “One copy is not enough. A disaster, natural or otherwise, could destroy it, and we can ‘t take that risk.”
The British Library, a legal deposit library, is required by law to hold copies of all British academic journals and books but cannot let them leave its premises. The National Research Reserve would contain second copies of British journals and books and potentially only one copy of all foreign items held by research libraries. Researchers would be able to visit the reserve, which would probably be built at the British Library premises at Boston Spa, or ask for journals to be delivered to a local research library.
The reserve is recommended in Optimising Storage and Access in UK Research Libraries, a report commissioned by the Consortium of Research Libraries in the British Isles. The report says that if no new facilities are built there will be a shelving shortfall of 280 miles (450km) in ten years. Despite the expense of building a central reserve, it would save an estimated £103 million required to build library extensions.
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There is broad support from librarians for such a store, as half of the 37 libraries polled said that they had reached or would shortly reach full capacity. Martyn Wade, of the National Library of Scotland, said: “If it works in the way it is anticipated, it is something that should be happening.”
Helen Hayes, who has been appointed to chair a steering group to develop the proposals, said: “We think about half of research libraries will want in, and we hope more will want to come in at a later date.”
But Oxford and Cambridge have expressed reluctance to let go of anything given to them under the Legal Deposit Act. Dr Hayes said: “We realise there are different cultures. Libraries such as Oxford will probably go on thinking that the size of their holdings is a measure of prestige. Oxford may never join.”