Dan Martin made the statement at a June 13 regents meeting after Board of Regents President Jamie Koch asked why he and three UNM officials failed to mention the fire’s cause or any damage estimate during a 20-minute presentation, the Albuquerque Tribune reported June 14.
Martin refused to comment further, saying only that the matter “is still under investigation.” He assessed the damage at $5 million but added that the amount could change as more information became available.
The fire destroyed a number of bound ethnic-studies journals in the library’s basement. Dean of University Libraries Camila Alire said in the June 15 Daily Lobo campus newspaper that most of the journals are available through the JSTOR online archives or the RAPID interlibrary loan system. She added that the library would rely on faculty recommendations to decide which titles should be replaced in hard copy.
Associate Dean of University Libraries Fran Wilkinson told the Tribune that she plans to request funding for a fire-suppression system in older areas of the library, as well as an improved security system. The first floor of the library is scheduled to reopen June 23, with access to the rest of the floors phased in over the following week.
Posted June 16, 2006.