The research library at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, houses tens of thousands of books, documents, journals, and mission datasets dating back to the Cold War space race. After the library was slated for permanent closure, the fate of those materials was suddenly thrown into question.<\/p>\n
On December 31, just days before the scheduled closure, the New York Times published<\/a> an article stating that some of the library\u2019s holdings would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be \u201ctossed away,\u201d attributing these facts to an agency spokesperson. This apparently ruffled the feathers of NASA\u2019s newly instated administrator, Jared Isaacman.<\/p>\n \u201cAt no point is NASA \u201ctossing out\u201d important scientific or historical materials, and that framing has led to several other misleading headlines,\u201d Isaacman posted<\/a> to X on Friday, following the library\u2019s official closure. Instead, he said, NASA will ensure materials are digitized, transferred to other libraries, or otherwise preserved for historical purposes, and that agency researchers will continue to have access to the scientific information and resources they need.<\/p>\n Isaacman also posted what he claims to be NASA\u2019s response to the NYT\u2019s request for information about the closure.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what NASA sent to this reporter when he originally reached out:<\/p>\n “As part of a Goddard-wide campus transformation effort, all in-person library services at Building 21 at the Greenbelt location were paused on Dec. 9, 2025. Those services include collection checkout\u2026<\/p>\n \u2014 NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (@NASAAdmin) January 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Gutting Goddard <\/p>\n While Isaacman\u2019s statement is reassuring, the loss of NASA\u2019s largest research library nonetheless caps a brutal year for the agency\u2019s science facilities, especially at Goddard. In July, Politico reported<\/a> that roughly 600 staffers were expected to leave the Space Flight Center as a result of the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping efforts to reduce agency spending.<\/p>\n At first, it may appear that the library\u2019s closure is aimed at that same goal. Isaacman is quick to point out, however, that \u201cthe physical library space at Goddard is closing as part of a long-planned facilities consolidation approved<\/a> in 2022 under the previous administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, Goddard employees<\/a>, their unions, and Democratic lawmakers<\/a> have claimed that the Trump administration rushed the consolidation during the recent government shutdown. According to a joint statement issued<\/a> by the two primary unions representing Goddard staffers, NASA began the process of closing 13 buildings on the west side of the Space Flight Center\u2019s campus in September. That includes the library.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 13 buildings are to be emptied out by March 2026, a deadline that can only result in harm or destruction to NASA\u2019s strategic capabilities, impacting both current and future NASA missions,\u201d the GESTA statement reads. \u201cThe unplanned and hasty nature of the action is poised to result in the loss of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded laboratory facilities, including sophisticated and high-value equipment that will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace.\u201d<\/p>\n A new era for NASA\u2019s research archives <\/p>\n For some current and former NASA employees, the loss of Goddard\u2019s research library is particularly gutting.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a hard time imagining a research center of the high quality that Goddard is, or any center at NASA, how they will operate without a library, without a central collection,\u201d David Williams, a planetary scientist who spent the past 32 years curating former space mission data and spaceflight journals for NASA\u2019s Space Science Data Archive, told<\/a> NBC4 Washington.<\/p>\n According to the NYT, Williams left Goddard this year under an early retirement program.<\/p>\n In lieu of the library\u2019s physical collection and librarians, NASA employees will have access to a digital \u201cAsk a Librarian\u201d service as well as the federal interlibrary loan process, according to Isaacman. They will also retain uninterrupted access to current digital subscriptions to technical journals and other digital content.<\/p>\n Researchers have expressed concerns that no digitization can fully replace the physical collection, the expertise of the library staff, or the benefits of congregating to work among scores of historic scientific volumes. It\u2019s a relief that NASA is taking steps to preserve the library\u2019s wealth of knowledge, but the agency\u2019s staffers will never experience it in the same way again.<\/p>\n