The Army Is Closing A Library That NASA Paid For (NASAwatch/al.com)
By Keith Cowing on September 26, 2019 12:43 PM
Rocket scientists mourn end of Redstone Arsenal's RSIC library, AL.com
"The Army is closing what its supporters say is one of the world's great rocket science libraries in Alabama next week, and veterans of America's space program are angry. ... The decision to close was made early this year and posted on the aerospace blog Spaceref. But it is not believed widely known in Huntsville, where more than a few rocket Phds did their doctoral research among the library's stacks. Unconfirmed reports have some current Army and NASA managers sending teams to the library to check out selected books and stack them in conference rooms and out-of-the-way places for saving. One project engineer posted in a group chat that RSIC "has been valuable to understand the basic equations of vibroacoustic modeling and see how others are using them. I don't think these techniques are taught in college. In my job, historical data is absolutely a necessity."
Announcement Regarding Redstone Scientific Information Center (RSIC) Transition to Virtual, SpaceRef
"The virtual RSIC will consist of online-only access to scientific and technical journals and ebooks, plus a repository for electronic versions of technical documents. The printed books and journals RSIC currently holds will be disposed of IAW applicable Army regulation; the printed technical documents (other than NASA documents) will be digitized and stored in the online document library. Access to online journal content should be available on 1 October; the electronic document repository will be brought online incrementally, with full availability by July 2021."
Keith's note: I guess its time for everyone in Huntsville who is concerned about this to go to the library with a hand truck and check out as many books as they can - and not return them. Strange how NASA provided the vast majority of the funds to build this library and the Army gets to shut it down.
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