[[mp3 sp_radio_07-05-13]]
On the heels of Smile Politely’s initial coverage of the extensive weeding of the Urbana Free Library‘s nonfiction collection, and in the midst of the ongoing responses to this and larger matters at UFL, Smile Politely Radio delves into the situation with two library professionals and frequent UFL patrons. JP Goguen is a library employee at the University of Illinois and provided much of the information from the first meeting (referenced in the article above), and Carol Tilley is an assistant professors at U of I’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science. They joined us in studio in their capacities as both professional librarians and also patrons of — and advocates for — the Urbana Free Library.
Our discussion delved into multiple facets of the unfolding situation, including the disparity between common collection weeding and the significant loss of collection at UFL, the timing and execution of the weeding process in this particular section of the library (where other departments had much more time to review and recommend actions), matters related to the strategic plan recently published by UFL, and the limited mechanism for employees to address issues or questions.
Further updates and information about these and other matters at UFL can be found at the frequently updated blog here (operated by several concerned patrons and citizens). Additionally, there is a board of trustees meeting scheduled for Tuesday, July 9 that the public is welcome to attend.
Additional Smile Politely coverage of the UFL situation can be found here and here.
Smile Politely Radio airs each Friday evening at 5:30 on WEFT 90.1 FM in Champaign, and is available as a podcast the following week.