One of my favorite places is the local library. I have always, and continue to love to curl up with a borrowed book and soak up some knowledge. I attended Appalachian State my freshman year and was highly impressed with their newly built library which was a quiet, comfortable place to study. When I transferred here I expected an even more serious and up-to-date library considering the University’s reputation for innovation and excellence. What I found was a cramped building that recently has placed a greater emphasis on what the average student wants (video games and ice cream) over what students really need — a constructive, quiet, study space.
The University has over 30,000 students on a campus built to serve about 15,000. We are running out of space for students to study in the library, which has led to plans for the James B. Hunt Jr. Library on Centennial Campus. The website for the new library claims that the current libraries seat less than 5 percent of students. It mentions that the UNC System’s standard is 20 percent and that the new library on Centennial would only bring that number up to 10 percent.
In the meantime, what has our library been doing to accommodate the thousands of students that need study space? According to the community page on the library website, in 2007, it created the Learning Commons which “features computers, expert research help, group study rooms, comfortable seating, and lots of new technologies to stimulate creativity and improve student success.” How do flat screen televisions and videogames improve student success? Video games are one of the most distracting activities a person can engage in. Also, since when is a chair made up of circles supposed to be comfortable? I have actually seen some of the chairs from the library in modern art museums. Intriguing to look at? Yes, but not ideally comfortable.
Instead of creating a more comfortable, quiet space to study in the west wing, this year they opened an ice cream shop called the Creamery. A coffee shop in a library makes perfect sense, but ice cream? Don’t get me wrong, ice cream is delicious, but does it really need to be located in the library? On top of that, the library says that it is positive because it has created 60 new seats for the Creamery that can be used for studying as well. I’m sorry; those plastic seats do not cut it as an invitation for serious concentration. Plus, whenever I eat ice cream I get a sudden urge to nap, not to pour over homework — not to mention the subsequent brain freeze.
All I ask of the University is that instead of focusing all of its energy on a new library halfway across the world and that it try to maximize intelligent and serious spaces in the library instead of turning it into a half-baked student center. If the University is too cash-strapped to meet the UNC System standard for student space, it should try cutting the incoming freshman population in half. What is important is education, not frivolous distractions.
