US EditionTop NASA Library Closing Amid Cuts to Staff, Laboratory
NASA closes Goddard Space Flight Center library, consolidating to three remaining libraries nationwide and saving $10 million annually amid broader budget cuts and facility closures.
- The agency announced Friday that Building 21 on the Greenbelt campus, which includes the research library, will close permanently following seven other NASA library shutdowns since 2022.
- Agency officials say the move is part of a long‑planned reorganization that began before the current administration, with Department of Government Efficiency efforts earlier this year cutting staff to 6,600 from more than 10,000.
- Researchers and former staff warn the stacks include Cold War–era materials and many journals are paywalled, while the Space Science Data Coordinated Archive has been offline for months, prompting fears; Dave Williams said, `You can't just get these things online.`
- Jacob Richmond said the agency will review holdings over 60 days, moving some to a government warehouse and discarding others, while staff will shift to digital `Ask a Librarian` services.
- Lawmakers and scientists say the closures imperil missions as the Trump administration proposes cutting NASA's science budget by 47% to $3.9 billion from $7.3 billion.
19 Articles
19 Articles
NASA says historic materials will be preserved as Goddard research library shuts down
The library at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, home to thousands of books and documents chronicling America’s space history, is closing in the coming months, raising concerns that rare records could be lost. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said on X that every item will be reviewed before the closure as part of a facilities consolidation plan approved in 2022 under the Joe Biden administration. “The physical library …
Some of the tens of thousands of books, documents and journals hosted by the institution will be disposed of in the garbage.
The Trump administration will permanently close NASA's largest library on Friday, which contains more than 100,000 books.
Goddard's Space Library to Shut, Losing Vast Material
NASA's biggest research library is about to go dark—and much of what's inside may never be seen again. The Trump administration is shutting the main library at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, on Friday as part of a campus-wide consolidation that will also close 13 buildings...
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