Talk:Harold B. Lee Library

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Good article Harold B. Lee Library has been listed as one of the Social sciences and society good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
June 1, 2008 Good article nominee Listed
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[edit] Size

For a discussion on comparative sizes, see Talk:Library 23:59, 10 March 2007 (UTC)—Preceding unsigned comment added by DGG (talk • contribs)

There is no such discussion there. The Jade Knight 00:49, 11 March 2007 (UTC)
try it again: Talk:Library, item 18, at the bottom. It works for me DGG 08:35, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Revisions regarding size

The size of Harvard's entire library system is irrelevant to both the claims in question (and what is being stated in this article) and to the Harold B. Lee Library in general. Regardless of how big Harvard's library system may or may not be, it is irrelevant unless this article is comparing itself to Harvard Library's system—the Lee Library is not a library system, and I am unaware of any point in the article where it compares itself to other library systems.

In addition, the "reference" DGG created simply moved relevant text from the body of the article to a footnote. It is not, in fact, a reference, and does not belong under references. The reason the comparisons are given is to help provide a sense of context for the claim being made. I feel that they improve the article, though if a reliable source can be found stating that the Lee Library is the largest in North America, that may be adequate in and of itself. The Jade Knight 01:02, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

Here I am thinking I know about academic libraries, and I am admitting that you caught an unequivocal error in the main Library article and I was trying to change the article to show that you are right. In the process, I have learned about the Lee library, and I hadnt known it before. So I'd think you'd feel good about it.
There are many meaning of "library", and "library building" is just one of them. The list in the Library article is not specifically about buildings per se--the "Library of Congress" is 3 buildings, connected. At the moment is is defined to exclude library systems, which is why Harvard University lIbrary is not there--nor is Yale or Princeton.
BYU probably is the largest single-building university library, in terms of square feet or miles of shelf space, It might be the biggest single-building university library in terms of collection size. The problem is figuring out what university libraries are single-building libraries. I thik the major ones would have to be checked one at a time. (BYU has a separate law library but that's a detail)
Then there's another consideration: the largest library building. (which might be elsewhere in a large system. I can think of some contenders, but I do not know of a list. And then there is the question of whether to measure by square feet, or shelf space, or collections size. As you say, neither you or I know of any larger. If you can find some comparisons, please put in a table of square feet or shelf space or both in the Academic library article, which needs some more content. I have the collection size numbers from ARL, and I will put them in. And, I will add some of the ARL statistics to Harvard and BYU , but there are too many to do all of the other places at once.

The ARL numbers are expressed in terms of volumes. There are also linear feet of archives, no. of microforms, etc) ARL does not attempt to sum these up into items, so there are no official figures for that. (the definitions of each are a little hazy too.). The definition of what counts as a university system is also a question: Rutgers groups their three campuses into one system for reporting; California does them separately)

I think the wording I used was exact, but I'll remove a comparison you don't seem to like just for peace' sake. But to keep all of us happy , I will remove them all from here. What Harvard may claim is not relevant to BYU, just as you said above, since Harvard does not claim to have the largest single-building library. I don;t think it appropriate to put in a comparison with what Harvard claims, since what BYU is, and what Harvard claims, are not the same measure. I can think of neutral wordings without using the POV word "claims" if necesary. In any case, the way you have it, "probably the largest single-building library" is exact, and reasonably sure at least about shelf space. The biggest single library building--maybe, I simply dont know.
But please check your wording again: BYU does not have a 8 million volume collection, it has, according to ARL, a 3.6 million volume collection. Nor is it 8 million items in circulation--they dont all circulate, and I doubt if more than half a million are out at any one time. It has them in the collection. I'll leave you to adjust it here. I'll double-check Harvard.
No reason to dispute about this sort of thing--we just find the numbers and say what they measure. Libraries typically show off the figure that makes them look best. My university liked to cite volumes per student, since it had a relatively small enrollment. If we want to dispute, we can dispute about who gives the best service. I'll tell you one prejudice of mine: it isn't Harvard. I don't know all the university libraries, but I know enough about Harvard to say at least that. But I'd be hard put to document it in numbers.

So anyway, have a good week-end. I'm very glad to have another academic librarian joining in. DGG 08:35, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures

If anyone has or can take pictures inside the library, I think that could add a lot of value to the article--maybe even add a gallery. Thanks. --Eustress (talk) 15:01, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

I went on a picture-taking field trip...hope it helps! --Eustress (talk) 19:40, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] motto

Is the motto the library moto or the general university motto? DGG (talk) 18:44, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Just the library's motto. --Eustress (talk) 19:32, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
Evidence, besides that they use it on their home page? I'd like to see a formal statement somewhere. That the word occur in the D&C is interesting as a source, but not quite the same thing. DGG (talk) 14:26, 18 May 2008 (UTC)
The D&C reference is just to illustrate where the motto comes from; it can be removed if you prefer, but I found the information helpful. Guides discuss the motto during library tours, but I don't have any referential evidence other than the homepage. --Eustress (talk) 14:17, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Harold B. Lee Library/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

  • It looks odd in the references section to have external links pointing to the magazine's homepage. I'd just have them without the link; the URL provided to the page being cited should suffice.
  • Done. I removed the external link to the HBLL, as it is already included in the infobox. I think the link to Special Collections is still useful, though. Thanks. --Eustress (talk) 15:07, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
  • fixed. Wrad (talk) 02:48, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
  • "However, the Lewis building (where Maeser's office was located) burned down in 1884, the fire also destroyed the library collection." - the however is awkward her, and an "and" would make it read better after the comma I think.
  • Fixed. Wrad (talk) 02:48, 31 May 2008 (UTC)
  • The history section has a few unsourced paragraphs.
  • "By 1950, the collection had long since" - sounds awkward, some redundancy...
  • I don't really understand the problem with this... Wrad (talk) 02:48, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Please leave a note on my talk page when you're done with these comments. Cheers, dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 01:11, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

All looks good, so passed. dihydrogen monoxide (H2O) 04:11, 1 June 2008 (UTC)