Library Service Changes: What Duke Faculty Need to Know

The following email was sent by the Provost’s Office to all Duke University faculty on August 15, 2025.

Dear Colleagues,

I’m writing to share some important updates from the Duke University Libraries. Because our work supports and facilitates so many aspects of teaching and learning across the university, we wanted to explain how the campus-wide strategic realignment and cost reduction efforts may potentially impact library services and operations this academic year.

Let me start by emphasizing that we remain committed to supporting your teaching and research. While I outline some actions below, I also welcome and encourage your feedback over the coming months to help us assess the impact of these changes so that we can continue to meet your evolving needs.

Consistent with university messages you’ve seen about the strategic realignment efforts to reduce the size of the Duke workforce, we have experienced a reduction in our full-time library staff as we move into the fall semester. We thank each impacted staff member for their many lasting contributions to the Duke University Libraries over the years. We will miss their expertise, deep institutional knowledge, and steadfast company.

In addition, as part of our budget reduction, we have been closely reviewing our library collections strategy to make some difficult decisions about what materials we can acquire and which subject areas to prioritize. As previously announced, we also closed the Pearse Memorial Library at the Duke Marine Lab, effective July 1.

As in so many other parts of Duke, these changes mean that we must do our work with fewer people and fewer resources. While these changes are unavoidable and necessary, they will inevitably reduce the level of some library services for Duke students and faculty. Activities and initiatives that were possible in the past may not be feasible now. Careful planning, informed and guided by our core values and strategic plan, is underway across the Libraries to mitigate the impact of these changes.

What do you need to know?

The loss of several subject librarian positions has required us to reassign some responsibilities, and to scale back support for subject areas where the university is also scaling back. Librarians will be reaching out to departments soon to explain these impacts and reassignments, and it’s possible you will have a different go-to library liaison going forward.

Staff reductions will affect our instructional capacities and training offerings. In our Center for Data and Visualization Services, for example, we will reduce the number of workshops offered per semester. And in the Rubenstein Library, we are able to offer up to two instruction sessions per class, but only until we reach capacity each semester. This is in order to accommodate as many different students and class visits as possible.

Turnaround times for reference requests and digitization requests may increase. We will also have less capacity in the areas of digital humanities, digital publishing services, and open scholarship, which may impact our ability to consult and assist with such projects.

Our ability to support campus meetings and events in library spaces has also been affected. We will continue to be able to offer room reservations for the Holsti-Anderson Family Assembly Room (Rubenstein Library 153), Carpenter Conference Room (Rubenstein Library 249), and Breedlove Conference Room (Rubenstein Library 349). Unfortunately, we can no longer allow food or catering in library meeting rooms. Note that we have also recently given access to several conference rooms in Perkins Library to be used as additional classrooms for Trinity courses, especially with building renewals in progress.

We are making adjustments to our collecting strategy, including a combination of steps designed to preserve access and responsiveness to your teaching and research needs within the scope of our resources. Some of these changes include:

– Prioritizing digital over print and other analog formats whenever possible, reflecting reduced capacity for processing, as well as the realities of diminishing storage and shelf space across the library system.

– Minimizing duplication of formats (i.e., print/digital) as much as possible.

– Exploring new models of evidence-based collection development and “just in time” demand-driven acquisition.

– Making budget decisions that align with our core values and leverage open-access (OA) resources, including journals, monographs, datasets, Open Educational Resources, and other OA content.

What can you do?

Please be patient and partner with us as we adapt, work with us on capacity limits and alternative solutions, and communicate unforeseen issues or problems as they arise.

Be on the lookout for emails from your subject librarian, and take full advantage of the services and resources we still offer, such as interlibrary loan.

Stay in regular touch with your subject librarian and let us know what you need, as we will still try our best to assist.

Place class instruction requests at least 4 weeks in advance, to give us time to get you on the schedule.

Despite these changes, I want to assure you that Duke’s library services will be maintained at the highest possible level within our new and evolving structure.

We understand that these strategic realignment initiatives are challenging for the entire Duke community, including our own staff. We appreciate your understanding, dedication, feedback, and flexibility as we adjust to these changes and get started on another academic year at Duke.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Joseph A. Salem, Jr.
Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs