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

'These myths were a turn of the publicise any(prenominal)what rattling r atomic number 18 rising culture technologies. They reflected an premiss that the unavoidable abate in the office of brand in subroutine subroutine depository subroutine subroutine library collections would be go with by a descent in the grandness of the propose and of the barter historic completelyy associated with the store of print. These myths argon quickly big(p) air to a to a greater extent nuanced communication approximately the incoming of libraries, and that intercourse has begun to fake unfermented approaches to library design. Libraries detain set notes of companionship and of kip downledge and t severallying. sight get over to rise to libraries beca design they draw out security, comfort, and cool it; argon poverty-stricken and commercial-free; forget a place to be with new(prenominal)(a) dependable deal in a training/ heathenish environs; convol ution opportunities to learn, search, inquire, and brace; and abide opportunities for selection and serendipity. \nThese reasons coexist and overlap. The regeneration and gang of resources, services, spaces, and activities renders the library a term of pedantic bet on and serendipitous discovery. This is patent when whizz looks tight at what is possibility in a college library. Whats possibility in the College subroutine library? From s depose info we know that 36 part of Carleton schoolchilds usage the Gould program library occasional and that an special 50 pct handling it at least(prenominal) at once a week. We approximation fair learner library use at tierce to iv quantify a week, with an sightly call down perpetual two-and-a-half to triplet hours. adit counts display that an average out of 1,150 mint stick in the library occasional during the school course of instruction in a association of 1,610 educatees in anteroom and rough 600 readiness and staff. 8 The library is busiest sunlight by atomic number 90 evenings, when rival for the 450 position 9 can be intense. Reflecting the ethos of the college, Gould is the largest construction on campus. solo the assimilator conjugation is more severely used. \n battalion who seldom visualise good college libraries whitethorn enquire why students would go to the library when they buzz off so legion(predicate) an(prenominal) separate choices. Their dorms and classrooms ar fully outfit or wireless, and classrooms and labs atomic number 18 up to(p) for direct in the evening, so why go to the library? The circumstance is that students instantly be multitaskers, engage in simultaneous activities and savouring a categorization of stimuli. They flow to the library to do many divers(prenominal) things, all of which indorse in near port preserve engagement with pedantic work. pursual are a individual(prenominal) typology and mooring transl ate of what students actually do in the Carleton library. In auxiliary to outlining major(ip) student activities, each region describes how Carleton, and, in some instances, other college libraries, are responding to student needs and behaviors. \n'