The place where fun comes to die…

You know that something is definitely no longer cool when a university Policy Office starts talking about it.

 

Here is an interesting ‘library’ event created by students from last semester.

 

With all the attention we give to them. With all of our effort toward trying to reshape the Library to their liking, they still perceive us as “the place where fun comes to die…”

I’ve noticed a handful of such events. Students form study groups, Calculus is particularly common here, and work through test preparations together. This is nothing new, but it demonstrates that students do use FB for more than posting drunken pics and looking for people to hookup with.

 

It could be interesting to surprise a group like this one day with pizza or sodas or a coupon for a free coffee from the library café. Catch them off guard. Provide a seemingly random unique experience. And more than anything, create positive grassroots PR for the Library.

Comments

[jill]

Hey, Brian! Thanks for pointing out that students use these tools for academic tasks as well as social ones. Sometimes I think librarians underestimate our students and assume they just want to have fun all the time, but most of them really do care about their work, and I definitely see potential for library involvement in these environments. We also have a lot of these study groups in FB, and I wonder why we don't ask these students for their perspectives on library issues more often since they're here so much AND we know how to contact them. Also, I think that the "where the fun comes to die" sentiment comes less from the library than from their assignments, but the two are defintely linked in students' minds, which is why I really love your idea about surprising them with gifts to shake up their old assumptions. You are right on (as usual)! I really hope your proactive ideas catch on because we really need to start shaping patrons' perceptions instead of letting the bad ones live on.

[Steve Lawson]

I love that tagline! Let's get it translated into Latin and carved in stone to put over the door to our libraries!

I also love the photo of the carrel that they chose. It's like, how much more gray could this be? And the answer is none.