I cannot get the images of mass book removals out of my mind, nor can I reconcile them with the university’s official claim that these actions reflect routine library “weeding” (see the August 14, 2024 Statement on the Removal of Books and Library Materials). What is plainly observable on campus tells a different story. Entire sections of shelving now sit empty—an outcome that goes far beyond standard thinning or rotation of materials and exceeds what is typically associated with responsible collection maintenance.
According to the American Library Association (2018), responsible collection maintenance is a selective, policy-driven, and content-neutral process—one that does not result in the wholesale disappearance of subject areas or function as a proxy for censorship. In library science, weeding is understood as an incremental practice intended to refresh collections, not one that produces visible gaps across disciplines or coincides with the elimination of academic programs.
The timing, scale, and physical outcome of these removals therefore raise serious questions about the adequacy of the explanation offered. Regardless of the terminology used, the practical effect has been a substantial reduction in access to entire bodies of scholarship—an outcome that cannot reasonably be characterized as neutral or merely procedural. Framing such results as routine risks substituting administrative language for meaningful transparency and accountability, particularly when the materials removed are closely associated with fields that have recently been discontinued at New College.
Whatever the intent, the outcome is clear: access to established fields of scholarship has been materially diminished in ways that are neither incidental nor easily reversed.
I don't ever see this happening at UT-Austin. I certainly hope I am correct.
Statement on the Removal of Books and Library Materials
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August 14, 2024 - by New College Communications
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The New College Library is following its longstanding annual procedures for weeding its collection, which involves the removal of materials that are old, damaged, or otherwise no longer serving the needs of the College. This process is carried out by professional Librarians trained to assess the collection. A library needs to regularly review and renew its collection to ensure its materials are meeting the current needs of students and faculty. The images seen online of a dumpster of library materials is related to the standard weeding process. Chapter 273 of Florida statutes precludes New College from selling, donating or transferring these materials, which were purchased with state funds. Deselected materials are discarded, through a recycling process when possible.
Separate from the New College library weeding its collection, a number of books associated with the discontinued Gender Studies program were removed from a room in Hamilton Center that is being repurposed. These books came from a number of sources, primarily donations over a number of years. Again, Gender Studies has been discontinued as an area of concentration at New College, and the books are not part of any official college collection or inventory. When the books were not claimed for pickup from the room, they were moved to a book drop location by the library where they were later claimed by individuals planning to donate the books locally.
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