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New Hampshire professors at odds with library over discarded books

DURHAM, N.H. —A dumpster on the campus of the University of New Hampshire is filling up with books from Dimond Library, and professors want to know why. 

Librarians said they need to make room for new science books, but one art history professor said they are throwing out volumes worth keeping.

A 20-yard bin that sits behind the library is filling up with books.

“I’m absolutely appalled,” said Patricia Emison, an art history professor. “I don’t know what’s going on. I was never consulted. It seems to me a travesty.”

Emison said valuable art history books are being thrown away.

“I don’t know what they think they’re doing,” she said. “I mean, you need those books to have a sense of the history of your discipline, even if they’re not the latest thing off the press.”

The library is recycling 36,000 books and putting another 15,000 in storage. The total is about 3 percent of Dimond's collection, and is on the move to make room for bio-science books, administrators said.


Read entire article at WMUR