If the rise of digital media wasn't clear enough already to journalism students, they received another signal last week when they returned to Ernie Pyle Hall: a library without books.

Over the summer, University Libraries moved the Weil Library book collection from Ernie Pyle Hall to the Herman B Wells Library. In its place are 17 Macintosh computers, five more than the library previously had, School of Journalism Dean Bradley Hamm said.

In the coming weeks, the school will expand its library's newspaper and magazine collection and add a career resources station at the former circulation desk, he said. He also expects to have three enclosed group work rooms built over the winter break.

He said the move reflects the changing ways students are using libraries.

"Library styles are evolving, not just here but everywhere," he said. "With journal articles, it's rare for anyone to go find the journal, photocopy it and put it back, if they have the chance to find it online and print it."

More than 80 percent of the library's books already had been moved during a renovation three years ago. Bonnie Brownlee, associate dean for undergraduate studies, said the library's low circulation numbers simply didn't justify keeping the books there.

"The main library has been evaluating all of its branch locations," she said. "They interviewed our students. They interviewed our faculty. They did counts on what books were being checked out. And they discovered our books weren't being used."

Librarian Grace Jackson-Brown will continue splitting her time managing the journalism collection, now at the Herman B Wells Library, and managing the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center Library, Hamm said. Library staffer Linda Butler also now works at the Herman B Wells Library instead of the Weil, where she had assisted students for several years.

School of Journalism office services assistant Grace Carpenter has relocated from the main office to the Weil Library, where she continues to provide support for faculty and staff.

The change also means the loss of the library's dropoff and pickup services, as second-year doctoral student Bill Gillis noted.

"It was really nice having those," he said. "Perhaps it was just a luxury and it's tough to see those go, but it would have been nice to keep some of those services so it's a real library and more than just a study and work room."

Hamm said journalism schools have been replacing books with computers for online research for more than a decade.

"I read a ton of books every year," he said. "It does not offend me that undergraduate students don't read books that we keep in our building. They read all the time. How they get information is just different."

The School of Journalism also took operational responsibility for its library, but it had to wait for IU Libraries to remove the books before it could begin its own renovations, Hamm said. New magazine and newspaper shelving should arrive this week. Last week, workers hung portraits of former faculty near the first-floor entrance.

The school has not finalized plans for the career resources section, but Brownlee said that should provide another boost to traffic in the library,

"We want a place that is more alive than it was," she said. "It was pretty alive before, but we want to make students, whether they're a part of our school or not, feel comfortable there."

The Weil Library is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays. Weekend hours have not been set, Hamm said.