Spotted outside of Olin: dumpster full o' books

Sitting in the parking lot between Clark and Olin is a huge dumpster full of books. You might wonder, why are all those books in the garbage?

I spoke with Liz Mainella, Serials Administrator at Olin Library, and found out that the books are being either discarded or transfered as part of the University's JSTOR Journal Offsite Storage Project:

In order to free up much-needed space in Olin Library, the library is undertaking a project to determine which bound volumes, available electronically through JSTOR, to consider withdrawing from the library's collection. These bound volumes will be retrievable from the Five Colleges Library Depository, an off-site storage facility.

Mainella assured me that all of the books being tossed will remain accessible to Wesleyan students. All the books are accessible through JSTOR, and the original bound copies will still be available through Wesleyan's affiliation with the Five College Library Depository.

Mainella also noted that the books that don't end up in the Depository will be recycled. That's a lot of paper!

Photo and tip courtesy of Cesar Medina '09.