NASA's Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts (nytimes.com) 37
NASA is closing its largest research library at the Goddard Space Flight Center amid budget cuts and campus consolidation, putting tens of thousands of largely non-digitized historical and scientific documents at risk of being warehoused or discarded. The New York Times reports: Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away. "This process is an established method that is used by federal agencies to properly dispose of federally owned property," Mr. Richmond said.
The shutdown of the library at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is part of a larger reorganization under the Trump administration that includes the closure of 13 buildings and more than 100 science and engineering laboratories on the 1,270-acre campus by March 2026. "This is a consolidation not a closure," said NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. The changes were part of a long-planned reorganization that began before the Trump administration took office, she said. She said that shutting down the facilities would save $10 million a year and avoid another $63.8 million in deferred maintenance.
Goddard is the nation's premiere spaceflight complex. Its website calls it "the largest organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system, and the universe." [...] The library closure on Friday follows the shutdown of seven other NASA libraries around the country since 2022, and included three libraries this year. As of next week, only three -- at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. -- will remain open.
The shutdown of the library at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is part of a larger reorganization under the Trump administration that includes the closure of 13 buildings and more than 100 science and engineering laboratories on the 1,270-acre campus by March 2026. "This is a consolidation not a closure," said NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. The changes were part of a long-planned reorganization that began before the Trump administration took office, she said. She said that shutting down the facilities would save $10 million a year and avoid another $63.8 million in deferred maintenance.
Goddard is the nation's premiere spaceflight complex. Its website calls it "the largest organization of scientists, engineers, and technologists who build spacecraft, instruments, and new technology to study Earth, the Sun, our solar system, and the universe." [...] The library closure on Friday follows the shutdown of seven other NASA libraries around the country since 2022, and included three libraries this year. As of next week, only three -- at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. -- will remain open.
Oh sure (Score:5, Insightful)
Plenty of money for that fat orange tub of shit to plaster his name on buildings like The Kennedy Center but they can't come up with the funds for this?
Re:Oh sure (Score:5, Insightful)
They should rename it as something like the "Trump Space Library", then ask for more funds to keep it open.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget that White House ballroom that still needs to be built, and construction costs have ballooned another $100M.
Of course, one wonders if ICE needs to be involved in its construction.
Do you know what time it is? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Do you know what time it is? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Congress is asleep at the switch because they're too scared to do their job.
Noting that Republicans (narrowly) control both the House and Senate - for now anyway.
Re:Do you know what time it is? (Score:5, Insightful)
By calling trumptards "dumb poor cucks" you are denying them agency. They are adulds, knowing perfectly well what the orange shitgibbon stands for, yet still voting for him three times. This is a clear endorsement of demonstrstive lies, open corruption, petty vindictiveness, appropriation of other peopleâ(TM)s institutions and other forms of complete moral bankruptcy at the highest political levels.
They are not "dumb poor cucks", they are despicable bastards.
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Re:Do you know what time it is? (Score:5, Interesting)
Tax breaks are only one of the payback schemes for el Bunko. He never does anything except for himself.
0. See Jack Smith's video deposition (over 8 hrs....best take it in 30 minutes segments so you do not lose your last meal) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I do not know how MeidasTouch got the video, the corporate media is only reporting transcripts.
1. Forcing crypto deregulation: he punts his shitcoins and his sprogs are hip deep in that cesspool.
2. His alleged "peace" deal between Pakistan and India (for which India was furious he took credit): Pakistan's crypto-bros (yep, they have them) did deals with el Bunko's sprogs.
3. HIs bombing Islamo-Fascists in Nigeria to protect the Christians: Bullshit, the areas he bombed are Muslim. Nigeria has precious minerals and oil and he's looking to get his cut.
4. His "interest" in a "peace" deal for Ukraine-Russia: Ukraine has precious metals, Putin has been paying off el Bunko for years. Putin and el Bunko are angling to divide Ukraine up between them.
5. Protecting the pedos in Epstein pedo-ring: When he called Boebert into the Oval Oriface to harangue her about signing the discharge petition to bring the release of the files to a floor vote, he told her that many people would get hurt, including his friends. Now whom does el Bunko consider friends? Wealthy contributors. And who populates his alleged administrations? Billionaires or at least multi-millionaires. His treasury secretary and commerce secretary come immediately to mind. There are others but it makes me puke me guts out thinking about them.
6. His tariffs: he gets to shake down companies asking for special case removal of tariffs on their companies or industries, and they reciprocate with cash or political crap.
7. The list could go on but I'm already feeling nauseous.
Re:Do you know what time it is? (Score:5, Informative)
Here's a shortened version (about 15 minutes), with commentary from Legal AF, of Jack Smith's deposition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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See Jack Smith's video deposition (over 8 hrs....best take it in 30 minutes segments so you do not lose your last meal) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I do not know how MeidasTouch got the video, the corporate media is only reporting transcripts.
Maybe corporate media were worried about ratings? Transcripts are less painful and easier to look away from. When I hear trump's voice I am left wondering how soon will it go away. It is a unique combination of hate, lies and disinformation delivered with the vocabulary and grammar of a pre-teen child and the coherence of a dementia suffer.
Re:Engineers quit using libraries decades ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Engineers quit using libraries decades ago (Score:5, Interesting)
Errr, yeah.
Noticed with the advent of the web peculiar interpretations of history, and there are supporting documents- but none of them are digitized and searchable on the web. I lament the huge swaths of history that will be lost as online becomes more the de facto Oracle.
And while it doesn't raise to the level of Stalin altering photographs; you still probably want to preserve original documents, or at least make copies where it is readily apparent they have been tampered with.
Re:Engineers quit using libraries decades ago (Score:4)
Maybe someone should tell the AI Bros that there are alot of human created documents that they can feed on, if they pay to digitise the documents.
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Are you an actual engineer or just a software developer with an oversized ego?
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He's just a cult member.
Why is their collection not digitized? (Score:5, Insightful)
Followed by online access to them.
Re:Why is their collection not digitized? (Score:5, Informative)
It's incredibly expensive, it's complicated, it's unpopular, it's labor-intensive.
Those of us who value history and knowledge immediately know that it's worth overcoming all these things in order to preserve materials -- some of which may be unique. But a lot of people don't value history and knowledge, and they will actively fight such efforts. They don't get it, they don't want to get it, and they view the entire exercise as a huge waste.
Which means that not only do archivists have to work through problems like "How do we preserve digital materials for 100 years, through multiple generations of storage?" and "How do we replicate digital materials in multiple geographic locations in order to defend them from natural disasters?" but they have to fight uphill against heavily-entrenched bureaucrats and management. And even if they succeed, even if they pull this off against tough odds, there's always the possibility that another bureaucrat/manager will come along in 10 or 20 years and abruptly conclude "I see no use for this, delete it" -- destroying an enormous amount of work in a day.
If you tune into the communications forums (mailing lists, web sites, etc.) used by archivists, you'll see this story repeated endlessly. Everyone in the field is working as hard as they possibly can to preserve audio recordings and literature and scientific reports and anything/everything else, and almost nobody has sufficient funding and support. Even as the technology has improved (e.g.,, storage capacity, metadata extraction, native-XML databases, and so on) the problems have become harder because fewer and fewer people see any value in preservation -- and some of those people run the show.
This very situation is a case in point: "We're throwing away an entire NASA library" is a ridiculous, horrifying statement of callous destruction. And yet, here it is, as if it were as routine as tossing yesterday's coffee grounds. And now what will likely happen -- because it has to happen -- is that volunteers like me and the Internet Archive and whoever else can be quickly recruited,, will have to scramble to save whatever they can and will have to put up their own money and store materials at their own expense and more just to try to rescue some of it.
Re:Why is their collection not digitized? (Score:4, Informative)
This is horrifying, terrifying, and sadly well-known even to those who superficially monitor such things.
Popular media: More than one US film/tv studio has "lost" or "suffered a mysterious fire" in un-digitised archives, destroying the lot, during battles to preserve. The BBC sued Bob Monkhhouse for preserving material it destroyed. In Britain, it has been no better. Fans of the British TV series "The Avengers" can only see old episodes because armies of previous fans descended on rubbish tips and, at great risk to themselves, collected as much film as possible.
General history: Places like the John Ryland's Library and the British Library have suffered with rescuing archives at risk of becoming submerged or destroyed by mould. The Archimedes Palimpsest was partially destroyed by one collector filling in the pictures with coloured pens and by another collector allowing the book to be severely damaged by mould.
The National Archives have mysteriously "lost" a great many files over the years and are only digitising those they've retained at an incredibly slow rate. I know because I've personally forked out several hundred to get just two scanned, all because politicians far prefer frippery to archiving. We've absolutely no idea how many of the manuscripts held in other archives are still in usable condition because nobody bothers to check.
It's not just limited to archives, of course. The US has, over the last couple of decades, demolished numerous buildings within the US that are over 300 years old because malls produce profit and ancient structures don't. (They also then complain they have no history...) The Space Shuttle is to be taken to Texas for a PR stunt, which will require it being dismantled and those things aren't designed for that. There is no guarantee any of it will survive the journey. All because PR matters and preservation does not. Other countries? The Louvre... well... probably best not to talk about that utter disgrace. In Egypt, 3000 year old gold artefacts are routinely melted down so the conservators can pocket some extra cash.
It's at times like this that Kenny Everett's general comes to mind.
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there's always the possibility that another bureaucrat/manager will come along in 10 or 20 years and abruptly conclude "I see no use for this, delete it" -- destroying an enormous amount of work in a day.
We had this happen. Scientific data published on our website was taking down because our leader wanted a more modern looking website and tool the people running it to take everything they hadn't updated down. Luckily, it wasn't deleted and we got it put back up. Today we have official data repositories, so that shouldn't happen again.
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because YOU VOTED against spending the money to do it.
So glad I'm not in CA (Score:2)
Otherwise I'd be trying to buy up that library.
The fall of the USA is proceeding apace (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly, the great country I've known for decades is but a memory.
On the bright side, this is Europe's moment: Europe is a much, MUCH better societal project than the US ever was - if they can get their shit together at this pivotal moment.
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Europe is a much, MUCH better societal project than the US ever was
For a fact check, let's check-in on European society...
Germany:
https://x.com/YossiBenYakar/st... [x.com]
Netherlands:
https://x.com/visegrad24/statu... [x.com]
Belgium:
https://x.com/DVanLangenhove/s... [x.com]
UK:
https://x.com/visegrad24/statu... [x.com]
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Nothing says "fact" like posting fact-checks from X.
Whatever it was you wanted to demonstrate, I don't have an account on this Nazi-owned platform so it's lost on me.
Huge ballroom - good, library - bad... (Score:3)
Will of the people...
More huge ballrooms and gold-plated cabinets...
Fewer books and libraries...
Libraries are overrated in Trump's world. (Score:5, Insightful)
Nobody on a golf course ever said: "hey let's let that that guy play through ahead of us, he's got a library."
Add Orange Boy's Name To It! (Score:1)
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Ohhh yeah.
The F-47 "Bonespur".
Ironically in 1999 I proposed NASA *add* a library (Score:2)
https://kurtz-fernhout.com/osc... [kurtz-fernhout.com]
"The project's ultimate long-term goal will be to generate a repository of knowledge that will support the design and creation of space settlements. Three forces -- individual creativity, social collaboration, and technological tools -- will join to create a synergistic effort stronger than any of these forces could produce alone. We hope to use the internet to produce an effect somewhat like that described in "The Skills of Xanadu" by Theodore Sturgeon (available in his boo
It's not that hard! (Score:2)