[Alumni-chat] Why Aren't the Students Using the Library?

[Jonny]

On 10/6/07, dude (dudevoyeur at gmail.com)
<alumni-chat_forum at antiochians.org> wrote:
> I urge everyone to read this article in this week's Record.  Here's the
> link:
>
> http://recordonline.org/2007/10/05/why-aren%e2%80%99t-you-at-the-library/
>
> Thank you.
>
> Deb Goodman (class of 1983)

The article asks a fair set of questions; to which there are some
reasonably good answers, I think. The short versions of the two
obvious answers:

1) the 'Students' you speak of are a fictional body of people that do
not exist on campus. There are scarcely enough people here to go to
the toilet let alone go to the library.

2) Even if you could form a toilet-collective, you'd all have to
remember to breath first because you'd have been too busy to care and
since the only time you ever sit down if you are on campus is when you
are in 'Toilcil', so to speak (pun intended, retroactively)


Seriously though: In all honesty, I was reading this morning in
_Strategic Planning in Higher Education_ (R.A.Servier, 2000) an
overview of some of the massive changes the dawn of the internet has
brought to higher education, and one University administrator was
actually quoted in the chapter as confiding to the author that his
organization was desparate to hide the fact that their library was
hardly used at all. This was presented in the context of discussing a
willingness to accept new paradigms and adapt quickly to the
corrosponding changes to surrounding processess.

I've not done independant research but it seems likely to me that the
impact of the internet cannot be underestimated, and that the
resulting downturn in perceived library usage is being experienced
universally, and is happening everywhere, not just to small
educational institutions that happen to have wandered into being
slowly stranled to death over the last few decades.

So while this article is well-written, and both the discussion and the
timing are appropriate - I'm not sure how effective it is to take
under consideration given the complexity and scope of the other tasks
at hand. I'm not quite sure how one would source institutional data to
prove that any perception of facility usage was in fact related to a
quantified change in usage patters, given that this data provides a
competitive edge, or a liability in the aforementioned case. Not the
I was on campus Thursday and Friday, and spent some time in OK as
usual. So to add my eyewitness account in and then editorialize if I
may: In my mind: #1 from the vernacular short list above is probably
the reason that the library seems empty. ie. the 'emptyness' stands a
good chance of being related to the fact that the entire campus is
quite close to being... um, empty.

Also, keep in mind folks.. this is so painfully obvious after spending
the last half of the week there and I have to stress this, because we
don't sit and think about this as often as we should or stop to
consider the physical toll and the anxiety of contstantly going going,
never getting a second to slow down - I'm suggesting that much is not
even near 'normal' enough to go to the library at this point, and that
everyone on campus is under a tremendous amount of stress. I can tell
you first hand I observed across the board nothing but schedules that
crossed the threshold of physically possible into 'what are you a
cartoon or something?', so this should also be taken into account - it
may just be impossible to schedule as much time there.

A related note, perhaps: it just occured to me as well that many
students are working on senior projects, which I would imagine involve
heavy time commitments elsewhere on campus, eg. in the art building,
or at the theatre, in the communcaitons facil etc and as such are not
able to get to the library as often.

But to soothe any worries out there, I can say with absolute certainty
that it is still the same place it has always been, just as inviting,
inspiring and bristling with expectation and discovery as it ever has
been. Just as there is no sense that the library itself is close to
thinking about being gone, I have a feeling that despite the internet
and the crazy schedules, most students are not simply 'gone' but are
simply too busy for words and can't be seen in the library as they've
broken the sound barrier halfway across the big lawn on the way over.

If it helps, for the benefit of everyone who has spent a good deal of
time in that library - and who feels sure that it has some sort of
'pulse' - I can confirm 100% that whatever creature that 'pulse'
belongs to is not close to even thinking about considering being dead.
There was great new stuff coming in too, as I had both hoped and
expected to see. All in all pretty good considering the whole valley
of the shadow of exigency and all.


jonny






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