The Penrose Library at Denver University was recently renovated and now a majority of DU’s books are stored offsite. To checkout a book now, one goes to the library, finds the book on a computer, requests it, and then waits a few days to receive it. Along with this move to offsite storage, the university is ramping up its digital eBook collection and subscriptions to digital journals. This trend is occurring at institutions all across the United States. This installation is a response to this trend.

In 2012, 20,000+ books were checked out of DU’s library, of these approximately 8,000 had been scanned, digitized, or had an eBook version. From these, 400+ used physical books were purchased from AbeBooks. These books lined the walls of the Victoria H. Myhren Gallery and formed the basis for the other three works in the installation: Outtakes, Loss Studies, Reading Between the Lines.