Dear Editor:

I am writing in strong opposition to the plan to move most of the library’s biological and agricultural holdings to the Carlson Health Sciences Library. As the jewel of the University of California in general and of UC Davis in particular, the library deserves a `central, prominent place on campus. This applies doubly to the collections in the biological and agricultural sciences, fields for which UC Davis is justifiably renowned worldwide.

Moving the collection to an all but inaccessible satellite library is bad enough; the inadequate space of the Health Sciences Library makes the whole enterprise unworkable and absurd. The materials involved are not only of central importance to the very large community of biologists on campus; they are widely used also by geologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and even by students. For most users, banishment of these materials to a peripheral bunker site speaks volumes of how trivial the administration considers the library to be. It is an affront and an insult, to say nothing of a major inconvenience to those who do not bicycle or drive.

A better solution would be to place materials that are already available online at a peripheral location, and to assemble other materials, especially older or more obscure publications, at the central campus library, that is, at Shields Library. It is a sad commentary on shared governance and faculty participation in major decisions that this sensible option appears not to have considered, and that the momentous decision to redistribute UC Davis’ library holdings was taken essentially in secret.

Geerat Vermeij

professor of geology