Monthly Archives: May 2012

Fisher Library stacks, May 2012. Photo courtesy of the author.

[Excerpt] “Sources within the library have told me that the most heavily borrowed items of the collection are business textbooks, so they will all stay. Journals and periodicals are to be thrown out en masse. Nineteenth century books and folios will be checked and, if valuable, some will be deposited in the rare books section. All duplicates will be offered to other libraries, or perhaps donated to the Third World if shipping costs are favourable (Bangladesh and Tonga are vaguely mentioned). The majority of the collection – books that have been borrowed once or less since 2000 – are to be transferred to what is euphemistically referred to as a ‘storage facility’ somewhere between Camden and Canberra. Where any individual book will be ten years after it has disappeared into the maw of the warehouse is anybody’s guess, but it seems safe to assume that it’s unlikely to be borrowed again.”