Mold remediation efforts for the Robert L. Carothers Library have been resolved, yet concerns still linger about whether lost academic journals and works will be able to be replaced.
Mold discoveries from 2024 ultimately resolved last semester at the University of Rhode Island, with the help of DAI General Contracting, safety and risk management and URI staff, including Assistant Director of Custodial Services Doug Michael and Head of Access Services Brian Gallagher.
Much of the material on the lower level had to be discarded because of the mold, according to Gallagher. The entire back area on the lower floor had to be cleared out, shifted and weeded.
The loss of materials is one of the biggest challenges the library team is looking to solve due to the lack of funding, according to Gallagher. The materials lost mostly include academic journals.
“[Academic] journals range from engineering journals to library journals, to medical journals,” Gallagher said. “We’re taking away from a vast knowledge base for researchers.”
Though the precise amount of academic journals discarded due to mold spores is unclear, the reason for this may be that there were too many to count, Gallagher said.
“I still [feel] bad because, I don’t know how many dumpsters were used for all that material,” Gallagher said. “That’s information that people will not get from URI ever again.”
The entire academic journal area on the lower level is now empty, according to Gallagher.
Trying to figure out what works to keep and which works had to be discarded was challenging for the Technical Services team, a separate library team which focuses on cataloging and materials, according to Gallagher.
Funding all depends on what the library budget is, according to Gallagher.
“We might be able to do it, but we might have to cut our losses and just deal with the fact that our interlibrary loan statistics will go down,” Gallagher said. “Universities that would formerly depend upon us for that material will not get it from us.”
Some works the library will be able to replace in the future, others may never be found at the URI library again, according to Gallagher.
“We can only do so much with what we are given,” Gallagher said. “The way the economy goes, budgets get smaller. You try to do what you can with what you’ve got.”
The URI library has not received much to work with in regards to funding for replacement of the lost works after the mold discoveries, according to Gallagher. No known additional funding was secured.
Library faculty still have to recognize and sort out third floor books, according to Gallagher.
“Somehow, they put things in out of order,” Gallagher said. “An entire floor, and my staff had been, we call this shelf reading where inventory, you go around and you put books back in order.”
The library faculty is working overtime to reorganize the works remaining on the third floor, according to Gallagher.
The worry now is about preventing future issues of the same nature, according to Gallagher.
“What can we do to prevent future mold one, [is] just better environmental control,” Gallagher said. “In terms of setting down procedures and monitoring, my staff is already doing more than enough in terms of like where they’re fixing the situation upstairs. For sure.”
