Students who frequent the music library noticed some shelves being emptied over the past spring semester, and coincidentally became quite interested in vinyl…
Beginning in February, cart after cart of LPs were pulled by the music library student assistants and brought into my office where they underwent close inspection, careful sorting, and thorough stamping. As some were sad to learn, those LPs that made it to the stamping stage were going away for good. The music library had a collection of approximately 2,500 33 1/3 rpm (long-playing) and 45 rpm records, many of which were inherited from the music department when the music library came under the purview of the library department. As newer audio formats have been developed, our vinyl has understandably seen less and less use by patrons. Use has not dwindled to zero, but virtually all use occurs “in-house” because so few students own a turntable on which to play records outside of the library.
For these reasons, it was decided that the LP collection needed some attention. The first round of pruning happened in February, and resulted in the deaccessioning of 2,124 records. You may be wondering what happened to all that vinyl… We were able to partner with the wonderful people at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, which holds large book sales as fundraisers. Vinyl sells pretty well at those events, so the Foundation was pleased to receive our donation. I, in turn, was relieved to see this large batch of LPs move toward the hands of appreciative collectors! The donation in February filled 38 boxes and amounted to approximately 1,520 lbs of vinyl.
It was interesting to see the uptick in questions I received from student patrons as they saw carts of vinyl roll by them. I taught a number of budding audiophiles how to use a turntable, why songs on CDs are called “tracks,” and even what “LP” stands for. While we have far fewer records than we did a few months ago, patrons will still be able to browse a number of LPs on our shelves, and can play them on one of our two turntables. One sits out in the main part of the library and is hooked up to a pair of headphones for individual listening. The other is in our listening room, where I’ve seen groups of students throw a record on while they study or work on a project.
There a few hundred LPs left on our shelves at this point. In the next week or two, I will finish going through this final batch to determine what’s rare, what can be replaced by CDs, and what must stay. (Rest assured, any recordings associated with Davidson or Davidson alumni will stay!)
So what will happen to all of our empty shelves? Study space is at a premium in the music library, and it can be hard to get a seat. We’re planning on knocking out some shelves and creating individual workspaces that will face out onto Chambers lawn through our beautiful, tall windows. Hopefully this will happen before the fall semester. Feel free to stop in and check on the progress!
