As the McDermott Library undertakes its spring cleaning this year, several university libraries will be reaping some recycled rewards through an exchange program spearheaded by UTD.
UTD and the Arnulfo L. Oliveira Memorial Library at UT-Brownsville (UTB) have partnered in the exchange to send duplicate copies of books and paper copies of periodicals that exist in digital format to UTB to help build its fledgling university library, according to McDermott Library Director Larry Sall. Materials not needed by the Oliveira Library are subsequently forwarded to Noreste Universidad Tampalipas and Universidad Autonoma de Zacatecas – two private universities in Mexico.
Noreste Rector Ivan M. Rovira said the donation of books and periodicals has had a significant impact on his university.
The program was originally started when Texas Southmost College, a two-year school, joined the UT System in 1994 and
became UTB. Dean of Instructional Support Douglas Ferrier
oversees the library and quickly realized that it was in no
shape to support students pursuing bachelor and graduate degrees.
“We’ve been playing catch-up from the onset,” Ferrier said. “(The program with UTD) has been a real boon to us.”
With the material sent from UTD as well as access to online periodicals through the UT System, Ferrier said the Oliveira Library can now compete with other institutions.
From the point of view of UTD, filling UTB’s library helps create more space for the rapidly growing collection at the McDermott Library, Sall said. With a little more than 50 percent of the building available for library use, maximizing space is one of the main goals of the library administration, he said.
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