Update on April 6: UT executive vice president and provost Maurie McInnis, accepts recommendations. Dean to assemble a Fine Arts Library Council.
A memo issued today by Douglas Dempster, University of Texas dean of the College of Fine Arts, and Lorraine Haricombe, vice provost and director of libraries, recommends that there be no further changes to the Fine Arts Library and hints that some library materials sent to remote storage could return.
The memo is addressed to Maurie McInnis, executive vice president and provost, and follows the release on April 2 of a report prepared by a task force charged to study scenarios for continued access to library materials housed in the Fine Arts Library.
The task force was formed after protest erupted last fall over the removal of library materials to an off-site location in order to make room for the College of Fine Arts new School of Design and Creative Technologies.
In today’s memo, Dempster and Haricombe recommend keeping the Fine Arts Library (FAL) in its current state.
They write: “Any discussion or consideration of further repurposing of stack space in the Fine Arts Library has become divisive for the college and counterproductive to rejuvenating the Fine Arts Library as a modern learning and research commons for the College of Fine Arts.”
Dempster and Haricombe also recommend improvements to the remaining library space including increasing shelving capacity, improving wi-fi performance and providing better furnishings.
A standing faculty and student advisory will also be formed “to ensure transparent communcations… on all signficant matters affecting collections management in the FAL, including priorities for which materials could be returned to FAL from remote storage.”
Pending approval from the executive vice president and provost, the recommendations outlined in the memo will go into effect.
Read the memo: Recommendation to Provost-FAL Task Force
Read the Fine Arts Library Task Force report here: https://lib.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/FAL_task_force_report_final_2018-04-02.pdf
