archives.

It's a bit interesting to go looking for archives about the archives.  Or literature about the library.  But, I've found a couple things that will be useful to my project:

--documents from '06 to the present detailing the plans for increasing Information Literacy in the student body
--floor maps of the library building
--an online repository of digital scans of antique documents important to Belmont history
--journal articles about the recent history of academic libraries in American universities
--books on the same subjects

Lives on the Boundary

Lives on the Boundary was truly an informative read.  Much of what Mike Rose writes about sheds a new light on my own educational experiences.  I am his target audience: that group of people who assumed too much about the education of their peers and never thought twice about students who struggle in education.  "They aren't working hard enough," or, "They just don't seem to care."  Maybe even, "They just aren't smart enough to understand..."

Such were my experiences.  Rose points out the hard truths: these "working-class children, poorly educated Vietnam veterans, underprepared college students, adults in a literacy program...lived for many of their years in an educational underclass."  He tells stories of his own experiences growing up not learning much in school.  Going to college on that rocky foundation.  Aside from a handful of caring and insightful teachers and professors, he never would have made it.

But my use of the words "made it" are exactly what Rose is critiquing.  What has he "made it" to?  Yes, he graduated.  But that's not what I meant.  He is successful.  He wrote a book, with no grammatical errors found in a first read-through.  Despite growing up in an "educational underclass" of his own, he now teaches the struggling students.  Has he really "made it" somewhere?  Or is education just some special example of being socialized into another class--those with a liberal arts degree?

Rose argues that even these students in an educational underclass are intelligent.  He proves it by giving them an opportunity to write, to enjoy poetry, to read Shakespeare.  They might not get the syntax perfect, but those things will come with time.  He lets them enjoy their freedom before cracking the whip of the grammarian.

I really enjoyed reading Lives on the Boundary.  Rose has a special knack for seeing through another person's eyes, and understanding why they make the errors they make.  It shows up in his writing, as he relates story after story.  At times, I felt that I was reading fiction, only to turn the page and find an argument for educational reform.  If you can weave story and analysis this well, you've made it...somewhere.

online. (community?)

Today I found that the library has a wiki: http://bunchlibrary.pbworks.com/w/page/6284024/FrontPage

It has several pages discussing the library, and appears to be mainly geared toward faculty, as much of the content discusses how they ought to teach several General Education courses like First Year Seminar and First Year Writing.  The site is very old.  The last thing posted on it was uploaded over a year and a half ago, so it doesn't seem to be a very popular place.

Continuing around the site, I realize why it's been so neglected.  A new online space has taken its place: http://belmont.libguides.com/content.php?pid=221098&sid=1835350

This one is not only more aesthetically pleasing, it also looks like it gets a bit of traffic.  It has research guides for every major imaginable, offering suggestions on first places to look for information and contact information for more one-on-one help.  While the first page hadn't been updated in almost two years, this one has had research guides updated in the last few days.  To be honest, I'm impressed.  The view count on the Pharmacy guide is over 13,000 views in the last year.  For a library website, that has to be a lot.  But, for as many views as the site has, I can't find any sort of discussion.  Almost every box on the page has a "comment" button at the bottom.  But every one that I see reads, "Comments (0)."  As useful as the site is to those 13,000 students, they didn't stick around to talk about it.  Likely, they were a bit too busy, with a deadline fast approaching.

glossary.

I've compiled a short list of terms that are important to the library:

Atrium -- area above the first floor lobby, on the second and third floors

Bruin Grounds -- cafe offering food, coffee, and other drinks, located next to the circulation desk in the first floor lobby

Circulation Desk -- desk where books can be checked in and out, located in the first floor lobby

CubCat -- online catalog of library materials

Multimedia Hall -- information literacy classroom available for use by classes located behind the circulation desk

Reference Desk -- desk where students are encouraged to ask the librarians for assistance with research and other academic tasks, located on the first floor, next to the computers which are available for student use

first interview: student worker.

I asked a friend of mine that works in the library if she would do an interview to help me out for my project.  She helped to point me in the right direction, as someone who spends several hours a week there.  A couple things that she said were interesting and helpful:

MC: Do you ever get distracted by noise from people upstairs?

My Friend:  Sometimes, so… you might have experienced this, but the library has those couches that are, like--I don’t know what material they are made out of--but when you sit on them, they make this noise, and it sounds like you’re farting.  And they have those couches upstairs, and so literally like all day long it’ll be that noise and then people start laughing.

MC: Are there ever large groups of people that might get louder at times?

My Friend:  Umm…  Sometimes... [she goes on.]

MC: Are there specific times that you’ve noticed that are more busy than others?

My Friend:  Well, yeah.  Thursday mornings there’s always a lot of people.  A lot of that I think comes from the café. People get coffee in the mornings and so the lobby is always like super packed on Thursday mornings.  The weekends, its usually pretty quiet: Friday and Saturday afternoon.  But then Sunday night is usually fairly busy because everybody tries to get their homework done for the next week.

MC: Were you surprised by anything when you started?

My Friend:  I had to take a little test about like call numbers and stuff to make sure I knew how to put all the books in order.  So that was kinda funny.  

We talked for about 10 minutes, so this is only a part of it.  It'll definitely be helpful as I move forward.  There are a couple themes that I had already begun thinking about that she touched on, so I was glad to talk to her.

artifact: keyboards.

For my cultural artifact, I thought I'd write about something always present in the library, though rarely examined.  My thoughts about the keyboards in the library started when I began to simply sit and listen.  One sound that never stops in the first floor of the library is the keystrokes all across the room.  How many students have used those keyboards? How many late-night papers typed?  How many are used to surf Facebook between classes, or to quickly print out an assignment, thanks to the lack of printer ink at home?

These keyboards have had a lot of use, and that use isn't slowing down.  While few people walk into the library expecting to hear the clicking of keys throughout the room, that sound definitely characterizes the space more than the sound of a page turn.  Funny isn't it, that a library, known for its books, would be more utilized for its computers?

spacial map.

I sketched out the first floor of the Bunch library as I sat, taking field notes.  It's amazing to see the concentration of people in the room.  In my map, X's are where people are sitting.  This obviously changed during my time spent in the library, but I marked locations at one time.  While I was there, I saw no one venture past a bookshelf.  It's like only half of the room is used: the half with computers and no books.  People were clustered around the tables with computers, though a few (including me) sat at tables in the middle of the room.  Most of these (again, including me) were on laptops.  The round tables marked 'iMacs' have no people at them, likely because, according to the blue papers taped to each, they are "Not in Use...yet! But set up is almost complete!"  It will be interesting to see if these are as popular as the older PC's, once they are up and running.

Once I draw out the physical location of people in the room, I see that the actual use of the room may not match the intended use of the room.  Yes, students are present.  But they are rarely even physically near the books that are present.  I remember one girl sitting at the table in the back of the room (top left circle on my map), but it was almost as if she was using the bookshelves as a barrier between her and the outside world.  Her defense: no one would dare get too close, for fear of touching a book when a keyboard would suffice.

My map is by no means to scale, but I did the best I could from my vantage point in the middle of the room.