[lbo-talk] compare and contrast

[James Leveque]

Coffee shop, yes. Forbidden from coffee, no - at least at my alma
mater (Fresno State, which has a starbucks inside the library) and
current university (Edinburgh). Edinburgh tried for a few years to
restrict the hot, caffeinated beverages they sell downstairs to very
particular areas of the library, away from the stacks. But the only
way to enforce it was to send one of two security guard to go around
the library every so often, which wasn't very effective. So now,
there's basically no place where you can't drink coffee except in the
archives which, on a related note, is practically the only place where
you can go where it's still quiet. The whole coffee shop atmosphere of
university libraries is very talkative and group-work focused.
Edinburgh installed these 'study-pods' where five or six students can
sit around a tiny conference table and oversized computer screens and
present power-points to each other. They're neat, but damn I remember
a time when it was common courtesy to speak at a whisper in a library.

James

On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 9:31 PM, michael perelman
<michael.perelman3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Our library discarded loads of stacks.  Really stupid.  I protested
> but to no avail.  The idea is to make the library more like a coffee
> shop where you are forbidden from drinking coffee.