UNH Reviews 300,000 Dimond Library Print Books
Students who rely on print materials may see access change as the university works through a collection review it calls a decade overdue.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Higher Education
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The University of New Hampshire is reviewing nearly 300,000 print titles for potential removal from its Dimond Library. The review followed a plan to modernize the library, and a student-started petition has gathered over 600 signatures within a week asking the university to reconsider.
Why it matters
For Durham students, the review affects how much physical access they will have to books on campus and how the library's space may change. Books selected for review had not been checked out in over a decade, and the university says it is working through a collection review it describes as a decade overdue.
The review covers nearly 300,000 print titles, and faculty were given six weeks to review the list, ending Oct. 21, 2026. The selected books had not been checked out in over a decade, and the university has defaulted to buying electronic rather than print books for the last ten years.
The players
University of New Hampshire
A public research university in Durham, New Hampshire, conducting the collection review at Dimond Library.
Dimond Library
The main library of the University of New Hampshire, where the nearly 300,000 print titles are under review.
Justin Kostopulos
A student who started a petition asking UNH to reconsider the book removal review.
The details
UNH selected books for review based on circulation, flagging titles that had not been checked out in more than a decade. Faculty were then given six weeks to review the list of potential titles before any removal decision. The university says removed books can be easily found in another library or online, and it plans to open a new student center in the library's unused space in a few years.
Timeline
2014: Thousands of Dimond Library books were found in a dumpster.
1996: The library was last renovated.
Oct. 21, 2026: The faculty review period for potential titles ends.
Education Landscape
The review sits within a broader shift at universities toward electronic books and smaller physical collections as campus libraries modernize. UNH's e-preferred policy, now ten years old, shows how the print-versus-digital question has been part of the university's collection decisions for most of that period.
Students who rely on print books for coursework may want to ask their campus library which titles are available in print, electronic, or through interlibrary loan before the review changes access. Faculty and students who want to weigh in can raise concerns directly with the university library before decisions on the list are finalized.
The takeaway
The big takeaway is that campus libraries are weighing physical shelf space against digital access and student use. If you rely on print materials, check with your library about what is available in another format before any titles are removed.
Further reading
For more on how campus libraries are changing their collections, see Higher Education.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Connecticut Public.
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