St. Edward’s University has restored physical books to the Munday Library after removing most of the collection during the pandemic. The decision came as students transitioned into online learning, and the demand for accessible digitized collections increased.
Within recent years, students expressed a growing need for physical volumes, according to Casey Gibbs, the library director who made the final decision.
“None of the current library staff had been involved with the decision,” said Gibbs, explaining that the decision to remove books was likely made in response to the quarantine during COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Gibbs said that those involved in the decision were “setting a new strategic vision for the university in a time that was really strange and frightening.”
The Munday Library was never entirely without physical books. Even after removing the majority of the physical collection, it did maintain some physical resources, particularly special volume texts. Gibbs describes this period as a time of “digital-first” collections.
“We had an opportunity to start rethinking, ‘What’s the future of the library look like?’,” Gibbs said.
A task force was then created with this question in mind, led by Marianne Ward-Peradoza, the vice president of academic affairs, and Alicia Betsinger, former vice president of institutional effectiveness, Gibbs himself and several student organizations.
“We benchmarked against other academic libraries. We exhaustively surveyed students, staff and faculty,” From those surveys, Gibbs said “Two key themes emerged: One of them was that we should improve study spaces in the library, which of course we agreed that we were overdue for, and the other, we got a clear signal that it was time to start balancing collections back in the direction of including more physical volumes.”
Gibbs describes this process as a “course correction.” He notes that we are all, the library and its faculty included, in a constant state of fluctuation and that the Munday library will continue to evolve to meet the needs of the community.
“We brought back physical books, and we are not going to stop buying physical books now that we have some on site,” Gibbs said. “We’re not going to stop providing electronic resources now that we have physical books. … As the situation changes, we are going to need to continue to evolve with it.”
The reinstatement of physical volumes has brought students, staff and other community members back into the library.
“Libraries are supposed to have books,” freshman Loralai Nash said. “I’m an active reader. … I plan on checking out books.”
“I do my work in (the library) all the time. But now I get to go around and actually see some great books,” said Alan Torres, a junior at St. Edward’s. “I would have to go to my Barnes and Noble. … Now I can go to my school to find books. It’s amazing.”
“There are more students in the building these days than ever before, many of which are using the physical books,” Gibbs said.
The library staff takes pride in their expanded programming efforts, according to Gibbs, who highlighted the frequent student-focused events now held at Munday Library. These initiatives aim to draw more students into the building and help them build connections with librarians and fellow students.
“It’s to get more students into this building, to build relationships with your librarians, to build relationships with each other, to become familiar with and comfortable in this environment so that when you have challenges with the academic work that you do here, you’ll remember that we are a resource for you — that we are here for you,” Said Gibbs.
