MARINETTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Residents say they were shocked to find a dumpster filled to the brim with library books outside Marinette’s University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.
The school tells FOX 11 it’s obligated to follow certain procedures when getting rid of property obtained using state funds.
When the calendar turned to 2024, in-person library services at UW-Green Bay’s campuses in Marinette and Manitowoc came to an end. That was announced back in October as the Universities of Wisconsin deals with budget problems.
Ending library services means something has to happen with the books, but many aren’t happy with the choices being made.
“It was horrifying, honestly, because these books, they represent a long period of time,” said Wendel Johnson, a professor emeritus at the Marinette campus, of seeing the dumpster filled with books.
Johnson was a professor at the campus for 41 years and his wife worked in the library.
“To us, it was really a very personal sort of thing to lose that, and I think for the people in the community in general,” said Johnson.
On Wednesday, the dumpster was emptied and started filling again throughout the day with more people coming to pick out books — including local author Tony LaMalfa, who had his own book in the library.
“It was jarring enough that I stopped and turned around and came back to take a look,” LaMalfa said of seeing the dumpster.
FOX 11 wanted to do an interview with someone from the university to find out more about why they were getting rid of the books in the dumpster. A spokesperson, instead, sent us an email outlining state mandated procedures the school took before putting the books in the dumpster.
The state manual UW-Green Bay says it was obligated to follow when disposing of the library books at its Marinette campus.
The email states the school first identified books to transfer to the campus in Green Bay. Then, it offered books to other UW System libraries and the local public library. Lastly, a book sale was held.
853 books were sold for $1 a piece during the six-hour sale last Thursday, according to the university spokesperson.
The university says it advertised the sale on Facebook, on campus, and shared it with Marinette’s library and NWTC campus. The school did not pay for any advertisements.
“There weren’t a lot of people there,” said Johnson, who says he found out about the sale from a friend who saw a poster on the library’s door. “It was not very effective in terms of bringing people out.”
The leftover books are being recycled.
The university spokesperson’s email states all the books’ values were weighed against the cost of staff time, storage, sales, transportation, and preparation.
“I think that is the type of analysis you might get from somebody who has no appreciation really of the value of some of these books and in place,” said Johnson.
UW-Green Bay reports the cut of in-person library services will save $67,183 a year in Marinette and $76,816 a year in Manitowoc.
The book sale for Manitowoc’s library is Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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