This petition is to keep the books at Penrose Library at the University of Denver. The library is undergoing a renovation starting in June of 2011, to reopen as the "Academic Commons" in December 2012. As part of the renovation, Penrose Library's collection of over one million books will be relocated off campus, and 80% were to be returned. However, in a recent radical decision by DU's Board of Trustees and Chancellor, 80% of the books will NOT be returned to campus in December 2012. Instead, they will remain at an off-site facility about 10 miles from campus, with no direct access or browsing privileges for faculty and students. The only way to obtain books will be to search and request them online, and shuttles will go back and forth to pick up and drop off books from the new "Academic Commons". Only 20% of the collection will be available on campus. This decision was made without faculty or student input, and has serious impacts on faculty and student research. Even though the books will be "accessible", they are not truly "available" and the knowledge based research that many in the DU community conduct by browsing the stacks will be eliminated. There are also serious conflicts with sustainability, to which DU has committed itself. The costs of another building, the energy to support it, and the fuel/vehicle costs of the shuttles do not appear to support a sustainable platform. The final estimated cost of the renovation is 32 million dollars. There are many questions as to how this funding could not have been used to extend Penrose Library's current footprint to extend additional space for students (one of the initiatives for the renovation) while leaving the collection intact. By signing this petition, you are opposing this move to keep 80% of the collection off campus and supporting a greater percentage (if not all) of the collection to remain available to faculty, students, and the rest the DU and local community.

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