Posts Facebook lets you install all sorts of third party applications. So far I am half way through a game of scrabble with one Facebook friend, have accidentally zombie bitten an overseas University Librarian, deliberately drawn grafitti on someone’s wall, laughed at my daily unshelved cartoon and have thrown virtual food at friends.
I like the “Question” application. It lets me ask a question that then appears in my friends newsstreams. My last question produced such, well – right- answers that I’m sharing them. I have permission from the contributors.
The question was:
Should we have leisure reading collections in academic libraries?
Here’s the answers:
Why not?
Yes! The academic library I used to work in had one. It was popular.
Definitely yes, subject to space and budget. We shouldn’t be as general as a public library, but if there’s something we think a good portion of our particular users would appreciate, that should be ok.
Sure! Students have some leisure time, why shouldn’t they spend it reading? Also, it’s a good way to draw staff into the library.
I can’t imagine a leisuire activity that isn’t up for critical analysis, so of course we should!
Yep! MPOW has a popular reading collection, that features on the holds list quite frequently. We have a lot of international students living on campus or very close by and the Library is not just used for study, but as their “family” room.
There is no such thing as pure leisure reading I think – everything can spark off a thought, reflection, or new discovery. If space permits, then by all means.
Absolutely! Everyone needs leisure reading and for many their academic library is the only library they access.
One person’s academic treatise is another person’s leisure reading.
Hi Kathryn
I agree with everyone who is pro leisure reading collections in academic libraries. I think one of the aspects that makes many academic libraries seem austere and unwelcoming to patrons is the absence of material ‘just for fun’.
I particularly agree with whoever mentioned the international students in their library. They are a large proportion of our student base, and especially our library user base. Many of them virtually ‘live’ in our 24hr library computer lab, and I don’t think it’s healthy for them to spend all their time studying or sitting on the Web. I would love them to feel they could borrow leisure books from the library and sit outside in the sun for a while.
Anyone who thinks that leisure doesn’t have a place in the (academic) library needs to have another look at what it means to be a librarian in the 21st century. If the users want it, we should stock it.
You’re right! Pretty interesting that we put the post up on the same day, eh? I hadn’t read yours yet, I promise!
http://www.libraryman.com/blog/2007/08/20/facebook-for-library-professionals-question-and-friends/#comment-5872
Thanks for your comment too. There is a lot of thought provoking stuff going on here that doesn’t always surface until, well, until it surfaces. That’s actually part of why I did a screen shot of the respondents instead of quoting them as you (very thoughtfully did) above.
Rebecca. I’ve been trying to work out an easy way to administer a leisure reading section in our 24 hr lab (in my head, as we are not planning to implement it – not my area). Our IT service desk people are there after hours, but I wouldn’t want to make them check books in or out. And I wouldn’t want to restrict it to just a read-in-library collection.
Michael. It’s all part of negotiating what privacy means these days. I still don’t know what it means. I suspect my tolerence for being “out there” is rather higher than other people – so I usually think about what I’d be comfy with and take it back to a more conservative position.