Science fiction author Nalo Hopkinson has raised concerns that new management at the Eaton Science Fiction Collection – the world’s largest public science fiction and fantasy library in the world housed at the University of California Riverside- could threaten the institution.
Hopkinson, who teaches at the university, wrote a blog post this week claiming that new management at the library has plans to drastically reduce the collection size. Check it out:
Since spring of this year, their accomplishments have included driving out staff members and pushing changes to collection policies that would reduce the Eaton’s holdings, its value to researchers and as a repository of our community’s history, and its standing as a world-class archive. Meetings with the staff of the Eaton have been productive, collegial gatherings. Meetings to negotiate with the new library administration, not so much. It’s putting the faculty of the research cluster in the alarming position of having to protect the very collection we’re charged with fostering. We’re dealing with the new library admins’ efforts to split up the collection and change priorities for what to collect (eg, e-text over print) without consulting scholars in the field, and with what we’d characterize as harassment of staff, who’ve demonstrated extreme competence over the years. (Via Sciencefiction.com)