(5 Sep 2024) In the first half of 2024, institutions of higher education in the United States closed permanently at the rate of one per week, according to one estimate, with little sign of slowing down. Where the author lives in Pennsylvania, eight colleges have closed, consolidated, or announced plans to do so since January 2024 alone. These closures directly impact small private colleges and the communities built around them, but closures also ripple throughout the academy, disbanding libraries and archives and endangering access to and preservation of the scholarly record.
Michael Rodriguez, the Senior Strategist for Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives at Lyrasis, points out how libraires and vendors might be affected by such continuous closures.
