Letter to the Editor 2/20 #3

To the Editor,’ ‘ We are writing in response to Keith Gillogly’s column ‘Libraries lose out… To the Editor,’ ‘ We are writing in response to Keith Gillogly’s column ‘Libraries lose out to the Internet’ in the Feb. 18 edition of The Pitt News. The mission of the University Library System is, broadly, to support the information needs of the students, faculty and staff of the University. The modern library is something of a hybrid institution, yet it fulfills its traditional mission of providing information access. ULS is much more than the books it contains, for books provide only one way of supporting Pitt’s diverse information needs. Parts of Hillman may look like a club thanks to the psychedelic paint job, but open, collaborative workspace is a vital service for many students who commute or are unable to study in their dorm rooms. At the same time, those shelves full of book ‘fossils’ are essential to the research needs of faculty and graduate students. Information accessed electronically is not necessarily free. The online databases that Pitt students and faculty can access are paid for and maintained by the library and meet stringent quality standards. Even some free resources, notably government sites, may require the assistance of specially trained staff. Andrew Miller, Roxanne Nagy and Anita Rile School of Information Sciences