Students and staff decided to hold a protest sit-in at the Fine Arts library on Friday evening and this weekend. They are concerned that the library will close. The police were called on Friday evening, so the protesters left peacefully but returned this weekend. There will be a rally tomorrow, Monday, at midday at the university.
Two other specialist libraries at the university may close – architecture and planning, and music and dance.
Books from these libraries would be moved to the main library. However, there is not enough room in the main library for all these books. Some books would go into storage. It’s possible that some books, for example out-of-date books, would be destroyed.
The Fine Arts library has the biggest collection of art books in the Southern Hemisphere. While some subjects like Science, use mostly electronic resources, Fine Arts needs books. Their library is located right next to the studio where students work. This makes it easy for them to find the most useful books. The library also has specialist librarians who can help students find relevant books.
Why is the library likely to close? Probably some specialist staff will lose their jobs and that means the university will save money. However, students believe it shows a lack of interest by the university in arts and culture. The government in recent years has been more interested in our universities focusing on the STEM subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Some universities have reduced the number of arts courses they offer to students.
Vocabulary
• Fine Arts – eg. painting, sculpture
• a sit-in (n) – people sit on the floor of a room or library and refuse to move
• a rally (n) – people march or stand together in a group, often carrying placards
• Southern Hemisphere – countries south of the equator, the south half of the globe (sphere)
• relevant (adj) – most important to the subject
• arts subjects – eg. foreign languages, history, philosophy, literature
• culture – eg. music, dance, fine arts, theatre