For Constellation I was tasked to think about how the design of the University campus is made to influence our behavior and thoughts. This is all I can think of.
When I was child library standards seemed to be a thing made of stone. You were quiet. You read. You asked before you used the computers and could only use them for so long. And if possible you took your books back to renew them.
Well somethings have changed. You now just use computers whenever you feel like it and can normally stay on them as long as you want. It is now normal to renew books online. And here at uni the renewing is done automatically unless someone else has renewed the book. These are not bad things. I find the auto renewing makes me complacent, but that maybe says more about me than the system. And even if I don’t like these changes they are just things changing with technology rather than a real lowering of standards. And the quiet rule is still enforced almost as vigorously.
But the thing on our campus library I do have to question is a sign near the entrance that says “No hot food to be eaten in the library”.
What is the issue here? Well in every other library I have been to the rule has been no food or drink. Period. Why the change here? The other changes are simply done to accommodate a new digital centric lifestyle. But the reasons for banning food are still as relevant as ever. Food and drink can stain or even destroy books, and you want the library to look as clean and tidy as possible. There must be specific reason for this divergence. Well here’s my theory.
Out library is open 24 hours everyday. We are allowed to stay there indefinitely. There are even blankets near the door for people who might work so long they need to sleep. We are encouraged to work flatout in there. Now it is hard to work for days at a time without food. One could always go to the near-by canteen or even up to restaurants and shops in Llandaff and eat there. But that takes time away from study in the library. And once you leave you might want to go home. Letting people eat and drink in the library (provided it’s junk food) not only encourages less fastidious students to enter when normally they might be hesitant. But encourages binge working for the overtaxed. I guess risk to the books was considered a worthwhile to make the students come in more and for longer. But I have to wonder. If the students our encouraged to lower there standards inside the library, will it have a knock-on effect elsewhere? I think knowing that someplaces aren’t the right place to eat gives one more respect for ones self and the world around them.
Or maybe I’m just a grumpy old man at age 28.
John's Learning Journal 