Following the trend for library mergers of various configurations, the recent union of a state university with a private specialized university, each with its own library, provides insight into this ongoing phenomenon. The issues involved in such a vision occur on many fronts, including administrative decisions, technological implementation, physical plant management, and staff commitment. All of these require considerable strategic planning, sometimes in the shadow of time constraints. The author addresses the challenges, the benefits, and the potential problems resulting from the merger of two university libraries and the implications for other libraries considering a similar amalgamation.

The Baltimore Hebrew University (BHU) was one of a handful of independent Jewish studies institutions in the United States during the twentieth century. Located in the heart of the Baltimore Jewish community, it grew from a small teachers’ college to a doctoral degree-granting university over the course of its many decades. Several factors, including shifting educational trends, pragmatic economic considerations, and societal expectations altered the academic landscape for this institution; dwindling enrollment forced the once-thriving school to consider options for re-location, re-organization, or closure. A little more than ten years ago, BHU’s programs, faculty, and library were incorporated into a large public university located in nearby Towson, Maryland. As part of this move, the extensive resources of the BHU library were integrated with the much larger library of Towson University (TU), and both collections are now housed in one multi-storied building in the middle of a busy urban university campus. This article addresses the phenomenon of merging two disparate library collections and focuses on both the positive and negative results of consolidating academic libraries of different sizes, content, and cultural heritage. The author was a former librarian at BHU and is currently a librarian at TU.

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