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SLA Urges Sandia to Rethink Closing Its Technical LibraryOne week after Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, sent out an internal memo October 15 announcing that it was closing the physical stacks of its Technical Library in order to go completely virtual, the Special Libraries Association sent SNL Director Thomas O. Hunter a strongly worded letter calling the move a “short-sighted” decision that could “cause irreparable damage in the future.” In the October 23 letter, SLA Chief Executive Officer Janice R. Lachance urged Sandia not to curtail any information services “until a detailed plan is produced and vetted by qualified information and policy experts who understand the critical nature of maintaining valuable services.” She added, “I shudder to think what could happen if Sandia researchers accidentally used wrong, or even not the most accurate, information on a weekly basis.” The Albuquerque Journal reported October 22 that Sandia managers began hearing immediately from researchers who said they could not do their work without referring to hard-copy books and journals. “One of the reasons I came to Sandia was because of their high-class library,” Sandia electromagnetics engineer Roy Jorgensen said. He often found relevant information by browsing serendipitously in the stacks. “That’s what you don’t get electronically,” he told the Journal. Sandia Chief Information Officer Art Hale said the decision was made because of a consultant’s study on how researchers used the library. He added that closing the stacks would save Sandia $1.1 million annually. Sandia Librarian Donald Guy told the newspaper that researchers checked out books 45,000 times last year. “I’m conflicted,” Guy said. “It’s very hard, but I can see that we need to move into the future.” The SLA letter cautioned that Sandia must “use an innovative information management strategy that leverages technology to its fullest extent while employing full-time information professionals who understand how information should be selected, organized, analyzed, and disseminated.” Although Sandia’s primary mission is to develop technologies to modernize America’s nuclear arsenal, prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and protect national infrastructures, it also is heavily involved in developing alternatives to gasoline-fueled engines, the Wall Street Journal reported October 22. Posted November 2, 2007. |
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