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

[Jonny]

.if only for the peace and quiet (and mildew) it exhumed. Reading a
book down there was almost other worldly. Creepy yes, but a pleasant
sort of creepy. And I always knew that Joe would come around sooner or
later to ask me what I was doing.

yes this is the same pulse, described in eerie precision as if you'd
borrowed my senses as part of your research before authoring that
email. as you put it - creepy, but at at peace, engaged, focused but
free to think at will or fall asleep unwillingly all at once. Dream
incubation chamber of sorts. If that were not enough, there is always
the unlimited falling down and knowing you are stupid for doing so
again, which is powerful stuff, i tell you: random insults, on a
semi-arbitrary basis - never mandatory but always possible. Combined
with unmatched ability to assist in any given research project
whatsover (without ever touching or insulting a computer at all), you
just can't find a better way to flip and vigourously shake the
etch-a-sketch of your brain on college, i'm convinced - nor can you
find a brilliantly insightful, almost 100% accurate / thourough search
engine that presents you with hard copies in the same amount of time
it takes your computer to power on. So, even those of us who count
ourselves among the ranks of 'IT' legions still see a place for
libraries like OK for reasons like these among many others.

It is amazing that a single place can feel that distinctive and be so
special to so many people over that great of a span of time and that
it can be so universally and precisely described by anyone that you
talk to about it - but then, it is another world after all, outside of
our silly time-space rules (and natural light, convieniently)