This commentary is by Ron Jacobs of Winooski, who retired in 2022 after almost 40 years of library work, including 25 years at college libraries — more than 20 of them at the University of Vermont and St. Michael’s College libraries. The rest of his library career was spent in public libraries.
Libraries and their staffs are an essential part of a college education. Pretending otherwise shortchanges students, faculty and staff. Indeed, it is an insult to their roles in the pursuit of an education.
The proposal to close the libraries on Vermont State University campuses exposes an unfathomable ignorance on the part of the decision-makers involved. Not only does it make me wonder if those individuals understand the role of a library at a university, it also makes me wonder if they understand that research requires more than an internet connection. I also can’t help wondering if some of them have read anything other than their social media and stock portfolio in the recent past.
All too often, the folks making educational decisions are not educators. Even if some are, their thinking is too caught up in a corporate mindset that cannot understand anything other than immediate returns.
This thought process is more akin to that of the bean counters in the corporate world whose primary rationale for everything is money. This has been ever more true in the last 20 or 30 years. It has been especially true as regards the institutions now known as the Vermont State University.
If one recalls a few years ago, bureaucrats, politicians and overpaid consultants were clamoring to terminate all of the state colleges in Vermont. Fortunately, clamor from Vermonters, faculty, staff and students prevented that calamity. The result is Vermont State University.
According to those calling to close the libraries, one reason is that the current use is not the same as it was before the Covid lockdown. This rationale is not valid. Very little has returned to how it was before Covid. It is too early to make permanent decisions with the existing data.
How can one honestly compare use statistics over the past year with the use statistics before Covid changed everything? They cannot, not truthfully.
Furthermore, since the libraries are not a profit-driven enterprise like some restaurant, this rationale should not even be applied here.
I encourage the students, faculty and staff of the Vermont State University system to oppose these cuts. I urge the residents of Vermont and their legislators to join them.
If the university administration feels it needs to save money, I recommend they begin by taking a hard look at the executive board and its facilities. In my decades of working at college and university libraries in Vermont and elsewhere, the presence of the library always meant a lot more to the students than the college administration and their office space.
