Dear Regenstein Librarians,
I am a graduate student at the University of Chicago and one of the
numerous faithful users of the Regenstein Library. I write to you today
with some suggestions about how to improve the function of this
immensely rich and important collection for future students and
researchers.
At the moment, I conceive the library’s collection as resources for
specialized references. Meanwhile, I cannot depend on it for canonical
humanistic literature; complete works of major single authors;
foundational texts for specific disciplines; or major books by
University of Chicago faculty members. The reason is obvious: These are
popular sources for which students and faculty at the university use,
misplace, check out and recall liberally. While the liberal check-out
policy of the library must have been installed to facilitate research
for individuals, it simultaneously makes the library’s collection
less dependable for the common body of researchers. I have spent weeks
waiting for “always-checked-out-but-may-be-recalled†books to be
available, only so that I could check one citation or photocopy one
chapter. Friends of mine have resorted to reading professors’
dissertations since their books are always checked out. I burden the
library with unnecessary interlibrary loan requests for canonical
titles in my discipline (for example Alois Riegl’s Group Portrait of
Holland) because our copy is missing. In fact, volumes of complete
works of major authors are often missing, which makes research at this
most basic level unnecessarily inconvenient.
A related concern is the poor conservation of books in this library.
Precious livres d’art from the early twentieth century are found
squashed beneath other hard-covered books in the stacks, while18th- and
19th-century texts sit accumulating pressure on their covers and
spines. It is perhaps part and parcel of the ethos of luxury and waste
in this country to prefer replacement of abused objects by new ones.
However, with the downturn of the economy, I wonder if this policy
could be reconsidered. Much of the library’s precious collection,
after all, contains irreplaceable items.
My exposure to a variety of libraries led me to the following two
suggestions for the Regenstein Library. First, the expansion of
reference section or founding of a core collection consisting of
canonical, foundational items with restricted building use and limited
check-out hours, whose availability to all researchers at our
institution can be more or less guaranteed. Works to be reserved in
this category should be complete works of major authors (from the
classics such as Homer and Shakespeare to influential thinkers such as
Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Foucault, Deleuze, etc.) Meanwhile, books by
University of Chicago faculty members should also have a place in the
permanent reference collection so that students are guaranteed access
to them.
Second, expansion of the Special Collection where dated materials can
be conserved properly. This would mean the shrinking of the open stacks
and the establishment of a more extensive system of books to be
requested and brought out by library personnel (like the Special
Collection or the Art Institute Ryerson library). However, it seems to
me that the advantages are various: the collection will be better
preserved, and workload will decrease book-scouters looking for
missing/hidden books in the library.
I write as someone who depends on the Regenstein Library and is
grateful for its resources. It is precisely out of respect for the
materials that it provides that I wish to see more attention given to
their conservation and proper circulation. I believe that the
Regenstein would better serve its patrons by being more protective of
its collection and not letting books get checked out, misplaced or
simply stolen so easily, as they are now. I sincerely hope that my
concerns will at least be taken into consideration as the library
undergoes major changes in the near future.
Thank you for your extensive suggestion. In general we prefer to add additional circulating copies of titles in high demand. We understand that some books are more often off the shelves than on them, and last year instituted a system that automatically notifies bibliographers when an item has multiple recall requests. Many bibliographers use this system to trigger the purchase of additional copies.
We also actively work to replace the truly missing books. If a title you need is "missing" in the catalog, don't hesitate to use the Purchase Request Form to tell us you need it ASAP.
The Special Collections Research Center maintains an Archival Monographs collection that includes works by faculty authors. I'm not sure if our holdings are comprehensive - it's difficult to keep up with our faculty's output - but feel free to use them in SCRC if you can't find the bookstacks copy.
Regarding your second suggestion, space is at a premium in Regenstein until the Joe and Rika Mansueto Library opens -but Mansueto will provide a significant increase in space and allow us to store materials in an optimal preservation environment. Because Mansueto will provided controlled storage for both regular and special collections, we can also transfer additional material (such as oversize newspapers) into SCRC storage.
