4 ms·

Oh my goodness - it never occurred to me that a library could be scary. As a book lover, I was positively thrilled the first time I entered my university's 3-mi

by veddox 10y ago

Oh my goodness - it never occurred to me that a library could be scary. As a book lover, I was positively thrilled the first time I entered my university's 3-million-book-library... Although having said that, I can absolutely empathize with a library that big being confusing (especially when parts of it are spread all over town). Thankfully, our university library provides short introductory courses on how to use a research library, and there are brochures lying around everywhere that cover the fundamental stuff.

saltycraig 10y ago
> Oh my goodness - it never occurred to me that a library could be scary Me neither (probably doesn't help that I'm a trained librarian). I love walking into messy used bookstores too, where the books are piled precariously high and and stuff everywhere. I wonder if there's a 'used-book store anxiety'?
crispyambulance 10y ago
I find it very hard to believe as well. I've always seen libraries as a place to relax and spend seemingly endless unstructured time browsing and reading guided only by curiosity. I can imagine a slight amount of anxiety back when CARD CATALOGS were commonplace and one had to understand the indexing system (the dewey decimal system), scribble down the numbers onto slips of paper, hand them to a surly librarian and then wait and wait.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- sp332 10y ago
  This is about college students who aren't there for unstructured reading. They have specific research goals they want to accomplish, and that's why they get anxiety when confronted with giant unfamiliar collections.
  - veddox 10y ago
    That doesn't change much, IMO. Sure, finding the exact book you need in a collection of several million can seem daunting, but after you've learnt the system, it takes about three minutes (most of which is walking time). And learning the system isn't hard either, at least in my library, it's a matter of minutes. So as far as I can see, there is no real excuse except "I'm not used to books because they're not the Internet".
    - hueving 10y ago
      >Sure, finding the exact book you need in a collection of several million can seem daunting They don't know the exact book they need. That's where things go south. Any idiot can type the title into most library search systems now. The problem students have is when you ask something that requires them to figure out which books they should look in themselves.
    - sp332 10y ago
      According to the article, there is often confusion about which building you're supposed to be in. So it's not always that easy.

by veddox 10y ago

saltycraig 10y ago

> Oh my goodness - it never occurred to me that a library could be scary Me neither (probably doesn't help that I'm a trained librarian). I love walking into messy used bookstores too, where the books are piled precariously high and and stuff everywhere. I wonder if there's a 'used-book store anxiety'?

crispyambulance 10y ago

I find it very hard to believe as well. I've always seen libraries as a place to relax and spend seemingly endless unstructured time browsing and reading guided only by curiosity. I can imagine a slight amount of anxiety back when CARD CATALOGS were commonplace and one had to understand the indexing system (the dewey decimal system), scribble down the numbers onto slips of paper, hand them to a surly librarian and then wait and wait.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
sp332 10y ago
This is about college students who aren't there for unstructured reading. They have specific research goals they want to accomplish, and that's why they get anxiety when confronted with giant unfamiliar collections.
- veddox 10y ago
  That doesn't change much, IMO. Sure, finding the exact book you need in a collection of several million can seem daunting, but after you've learnt the system, it takes about three minutes (most of which is walking time). And learning the system isn't hard either, at least in my library, it's a matter of minutes. So as far as I can see, there is no real excuse except "I'm not used to books because they're not the Internet".
  - hueving 10y ago
    >Sure, finding the exact book you need in a collection of several million can seem daunting They don't know the exact book they need. That's where things go south. Any idiot can type the title into most library search systems now. The problem students have is when you ask something that requires them to figure out which books they should look in themselves.
  - sp332 10y ago
    According to the article, there is often confusion about which building you're supposed to be in. So it's not always that easy.