A college student’s vision for the academic library
November 7, 2006 6:03 am academic librariesMy daughter, a junior in college, sent me this IM exchange she and a friend had recently:
chiquitachik: how are you?
funnyblonde: good
funnyblonde: you
chiquitachik: good
funnyblonde: goodo!
funnyblonde: how was your day?
funnyblonde: eventful?
chiquitachik: not really
funnyblonde: yeah me neither
funnyblonde: the library was boring
chiquitachik: libraries usually are
funnyblonde: yeah such a shame
funnyblonde: they should put a circus in it
chiquitachik: HAHAHAHA
funnyblonde: that [would] make me want to go a lot more
My daughter’s comment: “I just thought you might want to know what your college constituency is looking for in the libraries of the future.”Shopping malls have installed merry-go-rounds to draw in customers. But I don’t foresee circuses in academic libraries. Is there, however, something we can learn from the circus suggestion? A circus appeals to multiple senses. Libraries may have aesthetically pleasing architecture and interior spaces and even the aroma of fresh coffee. But academic libraries primarily appeal to and cater to the intellect. In a world in which college students multitask and are accustomed to environments rich in visual and auditory stimuli, what can we learn from the circus suggestion? Information is packaged in a variety of media–ink on paper, online databases, Web sites, audio files, video, etc. Yet faculty assign students to produce papers (a term pregnant with connotations as well as denotations). We can’t offer students circuses, but many academic libraries offer students and faculty multimedia creation and editing capabilities. Students are able take information in various media and use it to produce recombinant multi-media “papers” that can convey their message with greater immediacy than the purely cerebral traditional undergraduate research paper. Yet these are a glaring exception.
Perhaps it is the hold print/online journals have on scholarly communication and the tenure process that blinds most faculty to the possibilities of multimedia “papers,” both in student work and their own work. The rise of institutional repositories offers a place where we can provide access to such student works. Over time will technology-savvy younger faculty change tenure criteria to recognize the validity and value of students’ multimedia creations? The cynical (perhaps realistic) answer to that question is, not until after they earn tenure. Yet some determined and pioneering graduate students have produced multimedia dissertations despite institutional skittishness about fair use issues and faculty reluctance to accord these the same respect as purely textual dissertations. How can librarians help faculty see the opportunities for learning that alternative assignments offer, from undergraduates through doctoral students? What is happening at your institutions?
