I managed to get myself on a student advising board for the library here on campus, and I have to say, I’m learning some interesting things. One of them is that I am no longer cool enough to work in a library. Yeah, you heard me. In our last meeting one of the library staff told us about a new system they’re trying that would allow students to access library resources and get announcements via email, cell phone, facebook, Second Life–you name it. When we offered our opinions of the range of options, I realized that we were perhaps not really the group they were targeting. The students on the board are either very studious graduate students who like spending time in libraries and doing things the old-fashioned way, or undergraduates who have similar predilections. Many of us have worked in other libraries. If they hadn’t had a few resume-builders in the crowd, the library staff would have gotten the impression that nobody uses these new-fangled networking devices.
If I didn’t know better, I would swear that the library is simply determined to run out onto the street, find someone who has never stepped foot in a library, and lure them in by whatever means are necessary. Forget that they have thousands of patrons whose needs are not satisfactorily being met; they want new blood. And I can certainly understand where they feel that need: Justifying Your Existence, as my mom would say, is always the driving force at departments within universities. And libraries are no exception.
It’s not that I begrudge development resources being spent on ways to make the library a more interactive part of student life. But when you blur the line between work and socializing too much, the work can’t but suffer. It only takes one or two disruptive patrons in a library to make the place unbearable. This, being Ithaca, is also a place where there are policies against policing patrons. Apparently they don’t share my predilections toward public canings for unacceptable behavior 🙂 There is also the issue of computer usage. In a library that never has enough computers, where getting access to a card catalog (on a computer, of course) means standing in line behind someone who is IMing with her sweetie instead of looking up books or articles, this is a real problem. When library stuff is available on cell phones or social networking sites, who will be able to tell when students are using short-supply library resources and quiet study space for their intended use? My students have often said that the library is the last resort: it’s not terribly comfortable, you can’t eat there, and it’s a lonely place. But you can really get some work done there if it comes down to it. Now that the lower floors have turned into places in which to show off a new outfit and meet up with friends, and now that it’s the place with squishy chairs for a mid-day nap, that last holdout for work is being compromised. Sigh.
Erin
Alan Schmierer