I’m disappointed to report that the Scripps Institution of Oceanography library will shut down this summer. After I reported the library’s potential closure last year, many of you express shock and dismay at losing this amazing resource – but unfortunately California’s budget woes have triumphed. From Mike Lee’s article in the San Diego Union-Tribune:
In early 2011, UC San Diego leaders announced the closure of the Scripps Library and three others as part of a much larger initiative to save money. The announcement sparked protests, including a plea by the eminent Scripps scientist Walter Munk, but budget demands eventually prevailed.
Library officials said they expect to save about $500,000 annually by consolidating the Scripps collections into those at the Geisel Library [on the main UCSD campus] through lowered expenses for computer support, building maintenance and other items.
By fall, books are expected to be entirely removed from the first two floors of the Scripps Library.
I’m quite sad – I just finished a substantial amount of research in the library’s non-digitized collections – and hope that this reorganization won’t significantly impact scholarly activities.
The Scripps Library is one of the most potent scientific resources ever assembled. Its treasures range from archives containing the papers of some of the most important climate scientists, oceanographers, and marine biologists through books completely unobtainable anywhere to a card catalog that was itself a reservoir of knowledge. The closing of this library, whose beginnings well antedate those of the libraries into which it now dissolves, is a heinous crime, similar to the burning of the library at Alexandria. On the day of the closing, all at SIO should wear black and assemble at noon in front of the library in a final protest.
The amazing resources available at Scripps was a significant factor in my decision to accept a grad position at UCSD for this fall. I too hope that the re-organization of the library doesn’t negatively affect any research I’d want to do there. :(