How many books are in the Library?

Tea-a-Maria

A very productive question my friends and I were discussing last semester.We reckoned it could be close to a million,but this is just blatant speculation on our part.:pac:Does anyone have an official figure?

E.Bear

Its a tough one, but surprisingly the actual number comes closer to 1billion.

passive

I was going to say 7, but the above poster registered just to answer your question, so I'm going to assume his figures are better researched.

Dave!

My guess is 250,000

Pride Fighter

It's 1 million with the number being multiplied at least 20 fold when electronic resources are taken into account.

IT Loser

1 billion books......:rolleyes::rolleyes:

Time Magazine

Trinity's library (400 years old with 200 of copyright) has about 5 million books, so I wouldn't think ~1 million is a bad guess.

Eoin Macollamh

Whatever the number, the holdings are woefully inadequate for any institution that considers itself--or aspires to be--a major research university. But you'll never hear anyone talk about the library holdings when they come up with their specious 'league tables.' That's despite the fact that library holdings are as good a proxy as any for the quality of a university: the best universities have the best libraries with the most holdings.

It is noteworthy that library funding has declined under the reign of Hugh Brady, which is an indication of how serious he really is about research, as opposed to property development.

None of this explains, however, why it never occurred to any of you to check Wikipedia, which is usually the first and sometimes the only source students consult. There I find this:

"The Library as a whole contains about 1,300,000 print volumes, with substantial collections in other print and non-print formats, including 400,000 e-books."

I have no reason to doubt the veracity of that claim.

Riamfada

Someone ask reader services and report back will they? No electronic crap or stuff in storage, we want to know how many books are on the combined library shelves at any one time!

Dave!

Don't worry bout it Grimes, I'll count them today and report back

Breezer

Seven.

Dave!

Close, but you're way off! The answer is:



*drumroll*
























42!

emeraldstar

Someone ask it on the feedback folder thingy beside the escalators and see what happens.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Eoin Macollamh wrote: »

None of this explains, however, why it never occurred to any of you to check Wikipedia

Universities encourage the use of reliable sources.:p

RandolphEsq

According to the UCD library link in UCD Connect, the exact amount of books as of this very minute is 2,369,487 in the libraries around campus.

Link: http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f48/Jonathan2112/sucka.jpg

Time Magazine

Eoin Macollamh wrote: »

That's despite the fact that library holdings are as good a proxy as any for the quality of a university: the best universities have the best libraries with the most holdings.

Cause or effect?

dyl10

The Economist wrote: »

Cause or effect?

I suppose you'd have to assume they are dependent on each other

Time Magazine

dyl10 wrote: »

I suppose you'd have to assume they are dependent on each other

Of course, but my suspicion is that it's primarily consequential rather than causal. However I know very little about university rankings and have attended but two, so perhaps Eoin knows something I don't.

BlackMamba

Was listening to the Ray D'Arcy show a while back and someone rang in asking how many books are in the James Joyce Library. Apparently the number of books is about 1.2 million

Mr.Nice Guy

I wonder how much are missing though. :pac:

The Agogo

another question to ask is:

How many useless f***ing statues/monuments around campus?

And, more importantly:

How much do those statues cost in additional, and neccessary, books?

cHaTbOx

passive wrote: »

I was going to say 7, but the above poster registered just to answer your question, so I'm going to assume his figures are better researched.

Breezer wrote: »

Seven.

Two people saying seven cannot be wrong:)

pathway33

random chatbox wrote: »

Two people saying seven cannot be wrong:)

i took one out yesterday so......

Blush_01

There are definitely over a million, there were definitely over a million when I started my undergrad. Between all the libraries and the "overflow" it's impossible for a random student to wander in and accurately speculate as to how many books UCD's libraries have, imo.