A few quiet havens for the studious will be lost this school year as the UI closes the doors to four branch libraries.

In an effort to cut roughly $1 million from the library budget and adapt to changing technologies, the Mathematics, Psychology, Geoscience, and Physics Libraries will leave their current facilities to merge with other, larger libraries on campus.

“I really don’t know where I’m going to study; I’ve been coming here since junior year,” said UI graduate student Maddie Armstrong as she sat at a computer in the Psychology Library.

Another student, UI junior John Yuhas, said the branch libraries are a good place to study — far away from the growing crowds in the Main Library.

“There are too many people there and not enough space,” Yuhas said. “It is loud, even on weekdays, and because it is always packed, I just don’t go there that often.”

The four closings will eliminate 19 student jobs in the library branches, contributing to the efforts to save between $80,000 to $100,000 by cutting library positions, said Kristi Robinson-Bontrager, the public-relations coordinator for the UI Libraries. This year, stimulus money covered $500,000 of the $1 million in cuts that the UI Libraries faces.

Although budgetary needs provided an incentive for closing the branches this year, Robinson-Bontrager said technology has altered the necessity of holding specialized libraries. The field of physics, for example, is more concerned with producing electronic material than publishing traditional print journals.

Robinson-Bontrager said the four libraries were chosen because they have the smallest “gate count,” which refers to how many people come through the doors. While the Main Library had more than 1 million visitors in fiscal 2009, the four libraries combined had around 97,000 visits.

These cuts leave some uncertainty among the employees. But most said they were told they could find jobs at other libraries on campus.

Officials emphasized the libraries are merging, not closing. The frequently used materials will be available to students but in different locations.

“It’s not like we are closing them and throwing away the books,” Robinson-Bontrager said.

The four libraries will close during the winter and summer breaks.

Both the Mathematics Library in MacLean Hall and Psychology Library in Seashore Hall will close this winter, with some of their contents moving to the Main Library and Hardin Library, respectively.

And after the finals rush this spring, the Physics and Geoscience Libraries will shut their doors, sending documents from both locations a block or so east to the Biology Library.

“I just don’t know where they are going to put it all,” said UI senior Kymberly Vansteen as she pointed to the numerous map-filled filing cabinets lining the wall in the Geoscience Library.

Vansteen, who has worked in Trowbridge Hall since the spring of her freshman year, said that while the students all knew the branches would eventually close, they did not expect it to happen so soon.

Officials said they do not yet know what the rooms currently occupied by the libraries will be used for.

“Students want it as a study space,” Vansteen said. “But there are rumors that they might convert it to labs.”

Several UI officials, including University Librarian Nancy Baker, attended a meeting on Monday to brainstorm ideas for dealing with the looming midyear budget cuts. No formal decisions have been made, but Robinson-Bontrager said she is uncertain UI Libraries would be able to support the 24/7 hours during finals week.