San Jose State University and the City of San Jose are moving ahead with planning for an unprecedented joint library that will serve students, professors, and city residents. The $171-million project cleared two final hurdles last month, when it won approval from both university faculty members and the city council.
The proposed library was the subject of protests last fall by faculty members who worried about losing control over the library’s academic resources.
The new library, designed to stand eight stories tall on a corner of the campus, is expected to be completed in three to four years.
After more than three hours of debate at its meeting in December, San Jose State’s Academic Senate voted unanimously to accept the joint library on the condition that the university adopt policies to insure that professors have access to the books they need. The policies were outlined in a 19-page resolution that was signed two weeks later by the university’s president, Robert L. Caret.
The policy “sets up a safety clause,” says Pamela C. Stacks, the chairwoman of the Academic Senate and a professor of chemistry. If books are inaccessible or seem to be disappearing, she said, “we can unilaterally declare that there is a problem.” The new policies require the university to monitor circulation patterns and -- if people within the university don’t have access to what they need -- restrict the way books are checked out.
For example, if a book needed by a professor or student appears to be in “high demand,” the book can be placed on reserve for in-library use only or restricted to shorter check-out periods. If a book is determined to be in “excessive demand,” its use can be limited to university students and professors until the library can buy more copies or otherwise solve the problem.
The Senate acted after hearing a competing resolution proposed by Jonathan Roth, an Academic Senate member who fought to stop the joint library. He asked the Senate to recommend that the joint library project be shelved unless circulation policies were placed entirely under the control of the university and unless the library offered a university-controlled reference section separate from the reference desk available to city residents.
The motion by Mr. Roth, an assistant professor of history, became moot after Senate members decided, 28 to 12, to hold a vote on the 19-page resolution instead.
E. Bruce Reynolds, another history professor who is opposed to the joint library, said he was disappointed by the Senate’s vote. “We did the best we could to save our university library, but obviously it was not good enough,” he said in an e-mail interview. “The ‘safeguards’ adopted by the Senate are inadequate, but the result would have been even worse had we not campaigned against the library, so perhaps we accomplished something.”
San Jose’s City Council also voted on the library proposal last month. Council members voted 10 to 1 to accept legal and financial documents authorizing the construction of the library. The council member who voted against the project said she was worried that branch libraries would be neglected under the joint-library plan.
San Jose State officials said they would soon send library plans to the Governor’s office so the project could be included in the next state budget. The university is paying $101-million of the $171-million price tag, and most of its share is to be financed by a bond issue that voters approved in November.
Facilities planners at San Jose State are now preparing to build temporary quarters for university staff members who will be displaced by the joint library’s construction. The library, which is designed to stand eight stories tall on a corner of the campus, is expected to be completed in three to four years.
Background story from The Chronicle: