Sole Candidate Named for Louisiana State Post, and Other News

I noticed that students who can’t afford their own computers as freshmen come to the library to study. Often they learn how helpful librarians can be, especially in small libraries where they almost have to interact with us. When later in their college career they can afford computers, they continue to come to the library because it’s habit and because they know that the library offers them more than just a computer and study space.

I’ve often thought that the push to require students to have their own computers, ipads, and ereaders makes it harder to introduce them to the wonders of the library.

Do colleges still have brick and mortar libraries? News to me. No student or faculty today would ever have reason to know where one was. They’re almost as hard to find as liberal arts majors at most university campuses.

The students and even some faculty members on our campus seem to have little trouble finding the library.  Our enrollment is about 8,000 headcount and the library’s annual gatecount is approximately 300,000.  It is one of the most heavily used buildings on campus and I am sure that our situation is hardly unusual.

For qualitative evidence about how students really do feel about the library, there are two excellent ethnographic studies that document just that: “Studying Students” at the University of Rochester (http://hdl.handle.net/1802/7520) and the ERIAL project in Illinois (just published as “College Libraries and Student Culture by the ALA, http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.aspx?ID=3300). Turns out, for the most part, students *feel* pretty good about their libraries, although there are many, many things they don’t *know* about them.

I work at a small, private, liberal arts, all-female college where we are all – students, staff and faculty – pretty close-knit. So, in a way, I think it is easier for us to cultivate the type of relationship for which you strive, Brian. But one thing we do which perhaps some readers, even at big schools, might find helpful, is we do a scavenger/treasure hunt during the first several days of classes. But it’s not just your regular, run-of-the-mill treasure hunt. There are 3 things which I believe make ours unique. First of all, it is required by all incoming freshmen. (Granted, for us, that’s all of 225-250 students, so the feasibility factor is a lot higher for us.) Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, we have structured it specifically so that students will have interaction with the library staff. In fact, the first question takes them to the Reference Desk, where they must introduce themselves to the Reference Librarian on duty and get her name as well. The treasure hunt, while it takes students to all areas of the library and gives them a basic intro to various sources, is a fun, non-intimidating activity. And here’s the third thing: we allow students to complete the treasure hunt by themselves **OR with a friend, or even as a group,** so long as they turn in their own completed ‘map.’ Having interaction with a friendly face from day one, combined with being able to explore this new world with a friend (or friends) can really go a long way towards relieving some of that library anxiety.

Even in colleges, libraries can function as that “Third Space.” Some years the library is the cool space to study with friends; some years it isn’t.  My niece didn’t think much about the library the first year of college; but this year her roommates make it uncomfortable to study in her dorm, so she has developed the frequent habit of going to the library.

Librarians can do various things to make that Third Space become attractive.  The current trend is to have a cafe/cafeteria nearby, and I’ve heard that some have game rooms (I gather more to break the monotony of study than gaming for its own sake).  It depends on what the student body wants/needs – and presumably this will change from year to year.

Gate counts are up.  Use of electronic resources that the library provides has skyrocketed.  Guess who manages the brick & mortar part of the library?  Librarians.  Guess who manages the electronic resources and the budgets for those resources?  Librarians.  Guess who fixed problems in person or virtually for remote university users?  Librarians.  Students here complain that we’re not open enough hours in a week.  So we expanded the hours.  Faculty are happy and grateful to access the library remotely at work or home.  We provide a service to the university that MANY do not know about.  Our resources are heavily used both in person and virtually.

To say that library science degrees are outdated is ridiculous.  Please tell me you’re not on faculty on a campus somewhere.

It’s great being the hero of your life story. You’re assuming that those resources would disappear if the brick and mortar library wasn’t invested in. That’s a red herring argument. It’s difficult to argue that libraries are the best use of scarce funds in an age of massive cutbacks. I team taught a course in 80s with a librarian and co-published with her. All my classes took library tours before they did their term project research. We co-developed a library research guide. But one by one, each of those sources became available online, interlibrary loans of journals because Faculty and Student ID card accessible subscription access. The electronic resources you mention used to require dedicated library terminals to access, but no more.

Unfortunately, it may have been a few years since these incoming students had contact with a librarian or library space–so many high schools have done away with library support, and students don’t make the connection that this is another place/space/face that can help. We’re starting to look at making better connections from the academic library to the K-12 media specialists–it means breaking old habits and creating new ones so students (faculty and librarians too) can build relationships to be successful. That means being involved across the campus on committees, advocacy groups, faculty professional development workshops, accreditation teams, technology implementation, etc.Yep, we librarians are still here and busier than ever, in different ways…