Musings from the Library:

Since finals are rapidly approaching, I've been spending quite a bit of time in the library. Which started me thinking, which is always dangerous -- especially when I'm trying to learn. What good are libraries qua libraries these days?

With online research, we hardly use the library any more. If we moved all of our books to the Harvard Depository, we could just request them and have them shipped to us. Just look online, and in a few clicks, your book will be delivered. What good is the library any more? It appears to be a large study hall: it provides you with large tables for group study if you so desire, or individual carrels for some privacy. You can make copies. You can print from a computer! So let's just get rid of these books and free up more space for carrels or long tables.

As I see it, this mind set is precisely the problem with libraries. The conversion into a study hall has diminished if not killed the respect for these hallowed halls. People don't have their cell phones on "silent" -- some even answer them! People put their feet up on the desks. Some stand in the stairwell, talking. Talking! What happened to hushed tones? What happened to the fear of the spinster librarian? Or, better yet, the Hot Librarian?* So maybe the library as bastion of research is obsolete. But it needs to retain the trappings in order to command the respect that it deserves (and thus promote efficient studying by its denizens). Maybe that's the only way to get people to shut up, stop eating, and start brushing their teeth at home.

*"Nice stacks"