NASA says historic materials will be preserved as Goddard research library shuts down; WTOP, January 5, 2026

Mike Murillo, WTOP ; NASA says historic materials will be preserved as Goddard research library shuts down

[Kip Currier: Multiple concerns with even this statement by NASA head Jared Isaacman, responding to concerns about the preservation and accessibility of historic NASA archival records, data, and documents.

Who will be making the determinations as to what is and isn't preserved? Are there trained staff involved in this process, i.e. persons with expertise in archival practices, collection development, document/data retrieval, etc.?

Keeping these records and data doesn't have to be an either/or choice. Isaacman said "preserving history is important, but NASA’s focus remains on future missions, including sending astronauts farther into space and returning to the moon to stay." We can do both: "preserve history" and advance work on "future missions".

Who knows today what seemingly inconsequential data in a notebook, or sound on an audiocassette recording, or document from the early days of space exploration may be key to solving an engineering design challenge or shedding light on a scientific conundrum at some later time that we can't foresee now. Watch Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)! 😏]

[Excerpt]

"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 space at Goddard is closing as part of a long-planned facilities consolidation,” Isaacman said. He added that the goal is to digitize materials, transfer them to other libraries, or preserve them for historical purposes.

Isaacman pushed back on reports suggesting NASA might discard documents, calling that characterization misleading. Critics have warned that historic and technical records could disappear.

“At no point is NASA ‘tossing out’ important scientific or historical materials, and that framing has led to several other misleading headlines,” Isaacman wrote.

He said preserving history is important, but NASA’s focus remains on future missions, including sending astronauts farther into space and returning to the moon to stay. Researchers will continue to have access to the resources they need, he said."

NASA’s Rocky History Of Library Closures; NASA Watch, January 3, 2026

Keith Cowing, NASA Watch; NASA’s Rocky History Of Library Closures

"Keith’s note: NASA has been closing its libraries for a long time. Budgetary and building issues are usually the prime reason. Usually, stuff gets moved around and put in storage for years until the storage costs mount and then a portion ends up in someone’s library – somewhere – and the rest gets shipped to some generic GSA warehouse – or thrown away. Now it is GSFC’s turn to go through this painful process – not only with their collection but also the NASA HQ library that was moved there when the HQ library was converted to a visitor center. They have assured NASA HQ that nothing valuable will be lost. NASA’s record in this regard is somewhat rocky. More below.

To be certain, a lot of the material is already online at places like The  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) or the Internet Archive or university libraries. But a lot of the material is NASA-generated and niche-oriented such that only a few copies – sometimes one copy – exists. A lot of it goes back to NACA days.

I took this picture (above) at NASA Ames while their library was being removed. I am told that NASA HQ has been assured that nothing of value will be thrown out and that important things that have not been electronically stored will be. But the budget pressures are strong.

Some of you may recall the time when Dennis Wingo and I did a diving catch of all the 1960s Lunar Orbiter program image tapes that were in a remote warehouse and JPL wanted to get rid of them. We started the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP). We drove the tapes up to NASA Ames in two large rental trucks and assembled a team of retirees and college kids to bring the data back (link to New York Times) from the past at resolutions simply impossible to achieve back in the day. And of course you recall the whole ‘lost Apollo 11 landing tapes’ thing.

So, as these libraries close, I hope everyone at GSFC please keeps their eyes open to assure that NASA is preserving this history and not throwing it out. And if they are not then let me know. Below are some earlier examples of controversial NASA library closures.

• Memo: The Army Is Closing A Library That NASA MSFC Paid For, (2019)
• GSFC Memo: NASA’s New Strategy: Close Its Reference Libraries (2011) related post
• NASA ARC Solicitation: Packing Dismantling, and Reconstruction of Main Technical Library, (2005) related post
• NASA ARC Internal Memo: Library Reshaping, (2005) related post
• NASA Ames Library “Downsizing” (2005) related post"

NASA Reportedly Shutting Down Its Largest Library, Throwing Materials Away; Futurism, January 2, 2026

Victor Tangermann , Futurism; NASA Reportedly Shutting Down Its Largest Library, Throwing Materials Away

"This week, news emerged that the Trump administration is even shutting down the center’s library — NASA’s largest — and threatening to destroy an undetermined number of books, documents, and journals in the process.

As the New York Times reports, many of these invaluable artifacts haven’t been digitized or made available elsewhere. While a NASA spokesperson told the newspaper that the agency will review what to keep and what to throw away over the next 60 days, it’s a sobering glimpse at a federal agency in crisis.

After the NYT story ran, the agency’s freshly-minted administrator Jared Isaacman pushed back against its claims.

“The [NYT] story does not fully reflect the context NASA shared,” he wrote on X. “At no point is NASA ‘tossing out’ important scientific or historical materials, and that framing has led to several other misleading headlines.” 

That claim seems to contradict the NYT, which reported that a NASA spokesman named Jacob Richmond had told it that the agency would “review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away.”"

The tragedy of ‘deaccessioning’ books from university libraries; ABA Journal, May 2018

Bryan A. Garner, ABA Journal; The tragedy of ‘deaccessioning’ books from university libraries

"Book research is well-nigh irreplaceable to the skillful researcher. It can’t, and shouldn’t, be fully superseded by online research, which of course has its own splendors but also its own limitations.

So it’s disheartening to hear what’s happening to our libraries. A lead Associated Press article on Feb. 7 reports that “as students abandon the stacks in favor of online reference material, university libraries are unloading millions of unread volumes in a nationwide purge.” Some books are being hauled off to permanent storage sites; others are being sold en bloc to used-book dealers; and still others are being thrown into dumpsters.


Given that half the library collection at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been “uncirculated for 20 years or more,” university administrators decided to purge 170,000 volumes. “Bookshelves are making way for group-study rooms and tutoring centers, ‘makerspaces’ and coffee shops,” the article reports. Oregon State University librarian Cheryl Middleton, president of the Association of College and Research Libraries, is quoted as saying, “We’re kind of like the living room of the campus. We’re not just a warehouse.”

Traditional scholars are outraged. One calls this jettisoning of books “a knife through the heart.” He’s right, of course."