You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Vermont State University plans to repurpose libraries on its five campuses and move to an “all-digital academic library” system when it opens as a unified institution in July, VTDigger reported.
Parwinder Grewal, who will become president of the new university, announced the decision in an email to students, faculty members and staff Tuesday. The goal of the changes, Grewal said, is to provide “greater equity of access to our library services.”
The new university will combine Castleton University, Vermont Technical College and Northern Vermont University. Northern Vermont in 2018 absorbed Johnson State College and Lyndon State College.
The new plan for libraries is to eliminate all books and other physical resources.
Students criticized the move.
Alexia Murray, a biology major on the Johnson campus, called librarians, in person, essential to her studies.
“It’s a lot easier to get help” from librarians, Murray said. “Online, all I could really do was maybe google it—and I'd end up getting some either vague or too-complicated answer.”
Murray said she was weighing whether to stay enrolled in a college without a physical library and said she was worried for the university’s quality in the future.
