Mold on the Robert L. Carothers Library and Learning Commons third floor continues to contaminate books, raising concerns over the materials that University of Rhode Island disciplines rely on.
Compromised materials used by University of Rhode Island students studying English, history, language and social sciences are at risk of being fully discarded, according to interim Dean of University Libraries Peter Larsen. Faculty members in these academic areas were not informed.
Travis Williams, associate professor of English and faculty senate vice president, first learned about the mold when the Good Five Cent Cigar published an article on Oct. 24 , detailing where the mold was found and what had been done to mitigate health risks.
“There’s not clarity about who knew what when, and that leads to a lot of speculation about why things were not announced sooner, or explanations were not made,” Williams said.
Seeking transparency and communication about the mold, Williams contacted Larsen, and the pair arranged a meeting on Oct. 31 with administrators, library staff and faculty from the departments most affected. Attendees learned that the library had known of the mold’s existence since August.
The library basement underwent asbestos removal over the summer and staff discovered mold beyond the basement while conducting post-checks of the building’s health, according to Larsen.
Three months after library staff discovered mold in the building’s lower level, University Libraries and Facilities Operations published an update on Nov. 13 stating that mold was detected on a “limited number of books” on the third floor.
When library staff found the mold on the third floor, they contacted the university’s External Relations and Communications office, according to Larsen. The library wanted to post a notice to their website and put up physical signs in the library. Larsen said that they wanted to send out emails to faculty but the Communications office said no.
“It’s a little annoying in that [the library] have had a little bit of friction with the faculty over not knowing about what was going on, but in the end of the day, I think [the Communications office] didn’t want to clog channels, as opposed to, ‘this is a secret we don’t want to get out,’” Larsen said.
Like Williams, Carolyn Betensky, professor and chair of the English department, said she did not know about the mold prior to the Cigar’s article.
“We [the faculty] were just blindsided,” Betensky said.
While the Oct. 31 meeting provided some clarity over the safety efforts already in place, Betensky worries that the university will not know the extent of the damage until DAI General Contracting begins its second phase – a project that has not contractually been approved.
“Like, what are we waiting for?” Betensky said. “The mold just gets worse and worse and we’re going to be able to salvage less and less of it if we don’t get on this.”
The library does not have a budget to repurchase any damaged books as of Wednesday, Dec. 4, according to Betensky. Evelyn Sterne, associate professor of history and director of the Center for the Humanities, worries the mold removal process will result in a permanent loss of a potentially substantial portion of humanities collections.
“How am I supposed to teach classes in which I send students to do work in a library using resources they don’t have access to?” Betensky said.
While students have access to source allocation materials on the University Libraries website , Sterne views these processes as “slow” and “cumbersome.” Additionally, students lose the experience of browsing the bookshelves and conducting hands-on research.
STEM disciplines use journal articles or standalone books that can more easily be replaced by online versions, but hard copies of language, history, art and literary works hold value, according to Larsen.
The university invests more in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines because they generate more revenue, according to Betensky. For years, the library has purchased fewer and fewer print materials.
“The university needs us [humanities and social sciences], but if a central aspect of our being able to provide instruction is not there, you gotta wonder,” Betensky said.
Williams wants to know how the mold deteriorated enough to need intensive remediation and why the university did not share the library’s state of disrepair upon discovery.
“I know I feel, and I think other people are likely to agree, that an event like this is a moment where we have to rethink, as an institution, what our real commitment to these disciplines is,” Williams said.
The library intends to work “proactively” with faculty teaching in the affected areas to replace damaged or discarded materials, according to Larsen. Larsen expects the process to begin on Jan. 2, 2025 at the earliest.