Students and staff have occupied Auckland University's Fine Arts Library over the weekend to protest its proposed closure.
Students at a sit-in at Elam School of Fine Arts Library on April 27 Photo: Supplied
The university is considering shutting down three libraries and merging them with the general library to cut costs.
Student Rachel Ashby told RNZ's Sunday Morning the protest had been peaceful.
The way the proposal was carried was "sneaky", she said.
"They tried to put it out in such a way that people don't create a fuss about it and there is no avenue of official consultation for students and that is really important."
Rachel Ashby is an honours graduate of Elam School of Fine Arts Photo: Supplied
The Students' Association will be rallying outside the library tomorrow, she said.
Earlier in April, the university said in a statement it had an "existing and active collection development policy for library material".
"As part of ongoing collection development and management, some material is disposed of according to policy - this includes damaged items and out of date text books no longer required," it said.
"We assess our collections all the time to ensure we have the appropriate resources for learning, teaching, and research. Increasingly these are e-resources (e-books, e-journals, databases) which can be accessed from anywhere at any time.
"In the case of the closure of a library (such as Tamaki where the campus is being closed) there is certainly no wholesale destruction (or incineration) of books; they are primarily re-located to the relevant library or into storage.
"In some areas, such as art and art history, physical books remain the best choice, where as others, such as engineering, e-resources are prevalent."