Opinion: Will Yale respect the heart of the university? Dolores Colon Yale University's Beinecke Rare Book LibraryFile photo On Monday, my colleagues and I are planning to deliver a petition calling on Barbara Rockenbach, the Yale University librarian, to protect our jobs from subcontracting. At the Yale University Library, where I’ve worked since 1992, my colleagues and I are responsible for 15 million print and electronic volumes, including one of the world’s most prized collections of rare books and manuscripts. Although Yale regards the library as “the heart of the university,” years of understaffing have created a backlog in our special collections, with materials inaccessible to students and researchers until they are cataloged.