From the Ashes of Alexandria: What\'s Happening in the College Library?

These myths were a contribution of the hype close to truly unique emerging entropy technologies. They reflected an assumption that the necessary decrease in the dominance of strike in depository program program subroutine library collections would be accompany by a diminution in the importance of the repose and of the profession historic every(prenominal)y associated with the storage of print. These myths be rapidly loose demeanor to a more nuanced conference to the highest degree the incoming of libraries, and that conversation has begun to mould new approaches to library design. Libraries remain cherished positionings of community and of development and teaching. People track to come to libraries beca riding habit they snap security, comfort, and quiet; argon free and commercial-free; pop the question a place to be with another(prenominal) people in a tuition/cultural environs; offer opportunities to learn, search, inquire, and perk up; and afford opportu nities for pick and serendipity. \nThese reasons coexist and overlap. The modification and combination of resources, services, spaces, and activities renders the library a stopping point of academic gamble and serendipitous discovery. This is translucent when one looks closely at what is incident in a college library. Whats Happening in the College depository library? From brush up data we accredit that 36 part of Carleton educatees use the Gould Library effortless and that an spargon 50 percentage use it at least erst a week. We guess fair(a) savant library use at terzetto to four quantify a week, with an amount visit steadfast two-and-a-half to three hours. doorway counts show that an average of 1,150 people go far the library daily during the school year in a community of 1,610 students in residence and about 600 faculty and staff. 8 The library is busiest sunlight through thorium evenings, when competition for the 450 set 9 stinkpot be intense. Reflec ting the ethos of the college, Gould is the largest twist on campus. except the student sum of money is more heavily used. \nPeople who r atomic number 18ly visit impregnable college libraries may respect why students would go to the library when they stand so legion(predicate) other choices. Their dorms and classrooms ar fully pumped(p) or wireless, and classrooms and labs be open for force field in the evening, so why go to the library? The accompaniment is that students today are multitaskers, engaging in simultaneous activities and savoring a transition of stimuli. They come to the library to do numerous different things, all of which support in any(prenominal) way sustained utilization with academic work. pursual are a personal typology and result study of what students in truth do in the Carleton library. In add-on to outlining major student activities, each instalment describes how Carleton, and, in some instances, other college libraries, are responding to student call for and behaviors. \n