Request from the Department of Classics at the University of Illinois
The Classics Library at the University of Illinois, with an
open-shelved reference collection of over 60,000 volumes, is one of
the best in the world. Founded in 1908, and developed by W. A.
Oldfather and A.S. Pease in the 1920's from the historic Vahlen and
Dittenberger collections, it now houses magnificent holdings in Greek
and Latin Language and Literature, Philology, Linguistics, Greco-Roman
Religion, Archaeology, Palaeography, Numismatics, Epigraphy,
Papyrology, Art History, Ancient History, Patristic and Jewish
Theology, Medieval and Renaissance Latin, and Byzantine Greek. With a
staff of two, including one full-time scholar-librarian with a PhD in
Classics and a Senior Library Specialist with a Ph.D. in Linguistics,
it is an indispensable research and teaching tool for faculty,
students, and countless visitors from the U.S. and abroad.
In a recent "State of the Library" address, University Librarian Paula
Kaufman, under direction from the Provost to reorganize how the
library delivered its services, stated, "The best way to provide the
level of service we've provided in the past is to move away from our
monolithic department library model and toward new service models that
recognize the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of academic
inquiry." As one possible means of implementing this initiative, the
library is considering consolidating the Classics Library with all of
modern European literature (English and various European foreign
language) to create a single even more monolithic supra-departmental
library. The only stated intellectual justification for doing so is
that it will create greater "interdisciplinarity," on the assumption,
it seems, that Classical studies deals only with literary works, and
oblivious to the fact that Classical studies-as attested by the nature
of the holdings of the Classics Library-already is as
interdisciplinary as a field of scholarly studies can ever get. More
pragmatically, the reasons for wanting to consolidate the Classics
Library involve reduction of "service points" for library users and
space issues.
If this initiative is implemented, it will mark the end of the
Classics Library as an effective instrument of scholarly studies. The
on-shelf collection will be heavily reduced, thus destroying a unified
and coherent collection that has taken nearly 100 years to put
together. The social, intellectual, and pedagogical home that the
Classics Library has fostered for many decades will be destroyed. The
reputation of the Classics Library in particular and the University
Library in general will be seriously damaged, and library usage will
decline even further. In order to keep this from happening, we, the
members of the Department of the Classics at the University of
Illinois, hope that you will support our efforts on behalf of the
Classics Library by signing the petition that you will find at the
following URL:
https://webtools.uiuc.edu/formBuilder/Secure?id=1319096
If you would like to send a more detailed letter, please address it to:
Paul Kaufman
University Librarian and Dean of Libraries
230 Main Library
MC 522
1408 W. Gregory Dr.
Urbana, IL 61801
Email: ptk(a)uiuc.edu
With a copy to
Professor Linda Katehi
Provost
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
217 Swanlund Administration Building
601 East John Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Email: provost(a)uiuc.edu
Thank you!
===================
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June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks(a)gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com