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

[Steven Duffy]

Everything is relative.

First of all......people use the library all the time......and are even
banging at the door before we open.  which is now 10am
with the budget cuts...and use reams of paper in all the printers and
copiers.. do they read it all?

It comes in waves...between classes....

But with 207 people on campus how many would one imagine wouold be in here
at one time?..especially

when the weather has been outrageously warm and sunny...

We had a Founder's day party all day Friday and the parade was an usually
sweaty event for October.....

on the way back from downtown Horace's Hair...a twenty foot tall puppet
got stuck on a tree branch

right by the President's house.....it took a little maneuvering to loosen
up Ho's hair..

afterwards we had speeches and cake and a fair..even a consensual kissing
booth and karaoke and

pin the blame of the student body game .....Leslie Pownall from the
eighteis (visiting from Minnesota)  and I sat on a picnic
bench..yacking..and enjoying

some global warming......while students sang "stand by yer man" and some
country songs that were

alien to me...

This campus really needs 800 folks here...so 207 are swallowed up...and
most things appear quiet.

There is a handful..here and a handful there.

So if we had the full compliment of folks there might be twenty or more in
here.

Once upon a time, in the year of our lord 1991 we once had a sit-in in the
library.  We were that season's 8th week crisis!!

When the first computer lab came in(and the library had the only lab at
that time) ..folks simply wanted a place to stay and keep processing those
words, eh?

So in mid fall of that year after some rangling and irritation I
volunteered to readjust my life to keep the library

open as late as the local bars...2AM.

Since it was a major upheaval in my life..I made sure we all "partied"
...making the best of it.....which may have

meant sending someone over to the c-shop at midnight to bring us back a
snack.

Joe Cali made me do a head count every hour to see if usage merited it all.


Monday nights were always the winner.    With about 500 folks on
campus...it maxed at 44 and 20 more in the

AV room watching a movie.  64 was the highest number!!!!!

Of course..now you can  search the catalog from your room, or from co-op
or AEA.  and do research using the
Electronic Journal Center......those folks with a good computer and
printer....are doing it remotely..and some folks
also use electronic reserves...

So some library visits are more virtual.   When those folks have problems 
you see them..."Hey, where are the

tech resource people...my comouter crashed!"


I know when there are other virtual problems cuz my phone will ring.  "Can
you tell me my barcode?"

"How come I can't download my e-reserves?"  (Turned out that they were at
work at the base...and there were

probably filters to prevent them from printing.hmmmmm)


And in this age of resource sharing everyone  really shares everything
whether it is electronic journals or interlibrary

loan.   I get phone calls from adults who order things from all over the
state and then have them shipped to a nearby

library..like Central State..because they live around Xenia and that's
where they wanted their pick-up location to be.

Likewise someone who lives in Dayton may have their OHIOLINK (Interlibrary
loan item) delieverd to UD...to save them

time and gas money...a commute to and from YS from Dayton is $6 in gas
money....and almost an hour and a half drive....total..

Hopefully (from that record article)  folks will get Natalie's hidden
message which is pretty much what Joe Cali's thoughts were and even the
current people think..
which is...
     Make sure your information is reliable and refereed.   If you are
just working with Barney Google.(what Joe Cali used to name it)
..welllllllll..  maybe it is age of mis-information...
     and most librarians also tactfully and reticently say Wikipedia "can"
be a good start.


Today will be the second record breaking day of heat...93 or so. The
promise of normal October weather is for mid week
and beyond.  


Xoxox to Miz Deb.   I hope you have squeezed 10 minutes at Rye Beach for
me.  I know your life is busy.

and finally Founder's Day was fun...I went to the Lunchtime lecture given
my Jim Malarkey...anthropologist who taught

here in the eighties and then went on to help create some of McGregor
schools programs.

Jim's lecture was awesome and I learned alot about Horace and Arthur.......

if I can get ahold of some of text...maybe we can pass it along to yall.

Don't forget to think about homecoming........while home is still there.


Duffy '77