Defend the Library

by Cliopatria

A few months ago, University of Chicago's central library Regenstein had a questionnaire circulated to assess the way students used the space and plan ahead on how best to re-orient the library in the coming 5-10 years. One theme in the questionnaire was whether we"met" people in the Reg or whether we"wanted a social space". Questions about availability of foods and snacks and chill-out music.

As someone who uses the stacks to, um, get books and such, I paid little attention to the questionnaire but my concern level rises up a notch today. In CSM is an article about the UT-Austin turning their undergraduate library into a"learning center" with couches, laptops and baristas. What!?

Liberal bias in faculty! Global Studies! Churchill! Forget all that. Here is a cause I can get behind: Defend the Library! Let's talk about this in a comically rising voice reaching panic. Here are some places in any given campus where students can do"social gathering": Classrooms [before, during and after lecture]; any open space outside of any campus building; designated student centers and eating commons; dorms; and neighborhood speakeasies. How much social gathering do we need? Really? And speaking as a plugged-in digirati, I shudder when I read that students can access information through"bibliographical weblinks". Designed by Google-bots, I am sure.

I am not talking out of nostalgia for some"the-way-things-were". Just this morning, I have been writing a post about the necessity of increasing technology in the classroom [until Caleb pre-empted me below]. However, I cannot conceive of an undergrad education that does not include thorough familiarity with some semblance of archival/library work. There is more to a stack of library volumes than"Harry Potter". I hope.

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More Comments:

Andre Mayer - 8/25/2005

Harvard is now converting one of its two major undergraduate libraries into something like a student activities center. I rember being told in (about) 1968 that undergraduate use of the main library (Widener) was up by a factor of 10 in the previous decade or so, and that the undergrad library concept was on its way out. But it's a bit alarming if Chicago is looking at Regenstein, rather than Harper.

Ben W. Brumfield - 8/25/2005

Sure. I was agreeing with you on the coffee comment, but sadly my facility with English at this time of night is as poor as my ability to close my anchor tags.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/25/2005

Ben, My remarks about coffee and sweetrolls wasn't intended to respond to the UT story, which I know little about, so much as it was a response to Manan's original post here at Cliopatria.

Ben W. Brumfield - 8/25/2005

Obviously, a different library can serve a different, particular purpose and allow library facilities to grow and expand without necessarily attaching another addition on to a primary facility.

Certainly -- and in this case, the books are being moved to the PCL, which is where people at UT go to when they're looking for books. See the relevant comments to the Slashdot thread.

No argument, of course, with wanting to be able to sip coffee at the microfilm reader. But I don't see that that has much bearing on the UT story.

Ralph E. Luker - 8/25/2005

Ben, I think that growth takes place in different ways in different places, but why would Harvard have, say, ten libraries when it only needs one? Obviously, a different library can serve a different, particular purpose and allow library facilities to grow and expand without necessarily attaching another addition on to a primary facility. Having said that, I have to note that I was a little taken aback, but ultimately, pleased by my experience at the University of Virginia's library. Entering the fine old bldg, I found a coffee shop in the large reception room. That meant that students had ready access to coffee and sweetrolls that would, rules or not, find their way back into the stacks. Because I was having to read a ton of microfilm in a relatively short time, if I was discrete about it, I found that I could nibble my way through my brown-bag supper while sitting at the microfilm reader. It sure made it possible for me to read a lot more microfilm that way.

Ben W. Brumfield - 8/25/2005

As an occasional patron of the UT library system, this affects me not at all. The main research library (Perry-Castaneda) is the only one most people use for research, and is still accessible 24hrs a day to UT students for research or study.

What's the point of having an additional "undergraduate" library building with a smaller selection than the main research library?

Oscar Chamberlain - 8/24/2005

I'm more interested in redesigning the libraries' e-catalogs. A year or so ago, I read that university librarians were looking to make their catalogs more google-like. At least where I am, it hasn't happened.

Now Google isn't perfect (nor is Amazon), but both are more intuitive than the university systems I work with regularly. Google in particular does keywords better. The one advantage the university system has is that once you find a book, you can search the shelves on either side.

Thinking about it, I should make that my undergrads know about that last feature.

Caleb McDaniel - 8/24/2005

It was hard to tell from the story, but it looks like this change just affects one library building and only about 90,000 volumes. I presume that means that there are still open stacks on campus for undergrads to use, but that they are in a different location. Like I said, though, it's hard to tell from the article.

Hopkins has an "undergraduate library" too that is separate from the main library. Its volumes (mostly old and in poor condition) are non-circulating, and students mostly use that room for studying at the large tables and cushioned chairs provided there. I guess I'm wondering whether the "undergraduate library" that UT is changing is really something like that, which would turn this into an attempt to make a particular space more functional for the students who use it. I guess I'd want to know whether other library buildings are changing too before raising my voice comically high, but I'm ready to squeal once I've got more information.

Manan Ahmed - 8/24/2005

However, you are not an undergrad. I have no problem with "change" in usage pattern. But, never to give the opportunity of stacks to incoming class of 2008? Seems a bit presentist and myopic to me.

John H. Lederer - 8/24/2005

My perspective is a bit different.

My library usage is high, but very different than what it used to be.

My local, tiny, small town public library, is a member of a regional association of libraries. It is also much more convenient than the University library.

Essentially my library usage is to use Amazon, or other online mentions to determine what books I want.In a second browser window I have the regional association catalogue open.

I read the Amazon reviews, check the card catalogue, and order the book. It is available for pickup at the local library next day (admittedly always accompanied by chit chat since the library and librarians serve as the communications nexus for the area -- where else would I find the real scoop on new babies, plans to expand the grocery store, the stoplight proposal, etc. :).

Because there are a large number of libraries in the system , I only infrequently strike out, in which case I order the book electronically from the University library and my wife picks it up. Alternatively the local library through its regional association can access the book through other regional associations throughout the country, though delivery is much slower than next day.

Interestingly what puts it all together for me is Amazon ( and other online mentions) -- without Amazon I would only have the often unilluminating card catalogue.

I used to be a denizen of the stacks, and still believe in serendipity for reading matter, but this system is great. To a degree, Amazon now makes serendipity routine.

I find it interesting that University libraries have not joined the regional associations of public libraries, choosing instead their own associations. Snooty.

As for social interaction -- it would be nice if the patrons picking up their books and the librarians had coffee and a place to sit to maximize the library's function as communications nexus (grin).