University of Valencia libraries have started a campaign to make students aware of the proper use of the physical collection.

Around 30,000 loans are made every month in the libraries of the University of Valencia. Students, despite the advancement of the electronic collection, prefer paper manuals to study. The books circulate and are manipulated by the different users of the University. There is a significant percentage of books that are returned underlined with pencil and fluorescent markers. Some with personal notes, drawings, and various ornaments.

The main objective of the campaign is to make students aware of the consequences of their actions on books since the underlines and annotations are personal, but not the books, which belong to everyone. In addition, we want to emphasize that underlines make it difficult for people with visual disabilities to read.

We also want to insist on the use of bookmarks, which avoid bending the corners of the pages: there are many books that we find folded on the shelves. Clips, pagemakers and post-its are also enemies of the book.

The campaign will take place throughout the month of January on our social networks, mainly in the @bibliotequesuv Instagram and Facebook stories under the slogan “If you take care of what is yours, also take care of what belongs to everyone”. We invite you to join us to check the damage to the books in the collection and avoid them in the future.