Illustration by William Rerick/The Dakota Student.

There is something fishy going on outside the law library.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed the gigantic piles of books stuffed in Dumpsters behind the library, but I have. I’ll admit, at first I assumed there was a reason for such a gigantic waste.

“Surely they’ve tried to sell these books,” I thought. “Or maybe they tried to donate them and no one wanted them.” But something in the back of my brain nagged at me every time I walked past those giant Dumpsters.

As it turns out, there was no book sale.

Yes, you read that right — there was no attempt to save these books.

According to UND’s website, there is a specific procedure that should be followed before tossing out books, including being “offered to charitable organizations” after “an advertised library book sale.”

I don’t recall seeing any book sale. These books, it seems, have not gone through the proper channels for disposal.

I don’t care if the books are outdated. I don’t care if the books are all digitized. A large amount of knowledge about the way things are or used to be is just getting tossed out with yesterday’s trash, and in no way is that a good thing.

Maybe I’m too sentimental, but we’re throwing out the things that keep our history in ways so permanent that it can survive centuries.

We have texts like the Gutenberg Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls that prove this. Yes, digitizing books helps preserve them, but no method is foolproof.

A quick Google search proves that digital records decay just as physical records do, though it takes much longer. Seriously, Google it. It’s a pretty big problem that we’re trying to figure out how to fix.

It may seem silly to keep old books with outdated information around, but trust me, it isn’t. As humanity continues to evolve and grow, we will continue to look back and wonder.

Just as I study the ways Medieval society worked, someone, someday will study the ways our society works now. These books can provide insight into our lives in ways we wouldn’t even think of now.

We’re too close to the information. It’s easy to say that no one will ever want some old books from a stuffy law library, but we can’t know that for sure.

Maybe I’m on my way to starring in my own episode of “Hoarders” where they dig me out from under a pile of books.

Or maybe I’m just frustrated we’re treating these books — these beautiful items whose only function is to pass knowledge onto others — like trash.

I know we can’t save all the books. I realize that books will end up in the trash and sometimes that’s the only rational option. However, this should only happen when the other options have been exhausted.

There was no book sale. We are simply sending our knowledge and our histories to the trash, something I will never be okay with.

Knowledge, the sharing of it and the self-awareness it brings are what make us human. We need to value it. We need to respect it. These books are not trash, even if the information is no longer useful at present. We are throwing away the knowledge that defines us just because it doesn’t benefit us right now.

Considering these books come from a university, it’s ironic they’re being tossed out.

The very place that preserves and passes on knowledge is throwing away a large part of the preservation and sharing process. If that doesn’t make you sad, I don’t know what will.

Kjerstine Trooien is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected].