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How to get students into the library
Students at 30 colleges can check out something besides books at their school libraries this fall: Starbucks.
I do not oppose this trend, which so far has been wildly successful, but it is a sign of just how far things have gone.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on September 29, 2007 at 07:50 AM in Education | Permalink
Comments
If by "... just how far things have gone." you mean your worry about book reading being on the decline, then I guess I agree. I heard you worry about this on the podcast with Russ. To me, it is a typical issue of opportunity cost. There are many other things competing for people's time, the internet not least among them. I find myself much more willing to start a novel here in Yemen than I was back home. There just isn't much to do here... I think having a Starbuck in a library will certainly bring more people there, but I doubt that it will get more people reading.
Isaac Crawford
Blogging in Yemen
www.isaharr.com
Posted by: Isaac Crawford at Sep 29, 2007 8:33:03 AM
"We cannot have this commercialization of academic space." Then how exactly do you justify the Dell computers lab and the Microsoft software contained within? How childishly simplistic can these people be? How about arguing against the ascension of Starbucks in university libraries on the grounds that they serve bad coffee? Its my honest wish that one day a competitor will rise up and serve this brand of coffee:http://www.ospinacoffeecompany.com/, in its more than 30K worldwide locations.
Posted by: John Pertz at Sep 29, 2007 9:36:30 AM
From what I've seen from my university's library Starbucks it does nothing to get students to read. You can't bring drinks into the library for one thing. But mostly it has turned the library into a recreation facility. It may look like working from a far but up close it looks like a bunch of undergrads surfing myspace.com.
Posted by: awhogan at Sep 29, 2007 9:49:57 AM
personally as a student, I think its an interesting decision which might work for most people. If there was one starbucks in campus, and it was there in the library, i would be more inclined to go there. Its just a thing that good coffee and good books are great complements personally for me, so it might also help students to go back to library more regularly.
however, "on the other hand" as a serious student, who respects the sanctity of academia, I would warn against the excesses this might lead to, as people may walk in just for coffee, which may disrupt the peaceful and congenial environment reading demands.
Posted by: rahul at Sep 29, 2007 9:57:23 AM
But why should we want to get the students in the library? Make everything available via the network and turn the buildings into something useful. The various book-scanning projects will need to be finished and the results made available, but the day is not far off.
Posted by: Slocum at Sep 29, 2007 10:12:24 AM
If only there were some way for patrons to remove books from the facility, with a system in place to insure their return... or, perhaps, to efficiently create a copy of a work for a few cents a page. Then a hypothetical student could do the vast majority of his work in parks, bohemian cafes, and Biergarten of his own choosing.
Please contact me if your university library wishes to contract for my consulting services.
Posted by: J. Goard at Sep 29, 2007 12:35:47 PM
I can see how this would be beneficial to those of us who stay at the library all night doing research or studying. Instead of having to walk 4 blocks in the dark to a vending machine or coffee shop, I can just go downstairs to a Starbucks vendor and get a cup of coffee, drink it, and get back to work.
Posted by: Ellie at Sep 29, 2007 12:53:47 PM
There is ALREADY a cafe in my uni library, lol
Posted by: Chewxy at Sep 29, 2007 3:17:39 PM
Better than the venerable vending machine alternative.
Posted by: PJ at Sep 29, 2007 3:30:51 PM
Reading hasn't declined; most of us read more than we ever have. It's just that reading printed books for pleasure (including novels) that has declined.
Routine e-mails and reports take up far too much of our attention, and the generalization of word processors and typing skills has made these far more verbose than in the days of writing longhand. At the end of a long day wading through workday prose sewage, long past the mythical "9 to 5" of yesteryear and after a killer commute, most people quite sensibly plop themselves in front of the TV or log in to World of Warcraft... anything but more reading.
Another big demand on our attention is the non-fiction self-improvement sector: diet and exercise tips, investing advice, career advancement, parenting. A rapidly changing world means we do much of our reading online, to keep on top of recent issues that affect our lives: to make sense of the subprime mortgage crisis, for instance, you have to read websites and blogs and periodicals.
When at last we find the time to read a book, we find that they are far fatter now. The average paperback must be at least three times thicker than in the 1970s and correspondingly pricier, to say nothing of the thousand-page doorstops that publishers require from bestselling authors.
They say if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. In inflicting this long, verbose rant on you, dear reader, I have chosen to be part of the problem :)
Posted by: at Sep 29, 2007 4:41:42 PM
We saw one in the College of William and Mary this summer.
Posted by: Chris Meisenzahl at Sep 29, 2007 5:35:00 PM
Looking at that picture, I see that there is absolutely no one reading a book.
Posted by: Robert Olson at Sep 29, 2007 6:01:39 PM
Of course students need tasty caffeine sources located inside the library!
Our library at UNLV allows food and drinks except in certain areas. People have pizzas delivered to the group study areas all the time.
Posted by: Jacqueline at Sep 29, 2007 8:53:45 PM
"But why should we want to get the students in the library? Make everything available via the network and turn the buildings into something useful. The various book-scanning projects will need to be finished and the results made available, but the day is not far off."
Sounds like the sentiment behind the Librareome Project in Vernor Vinge's novel http://vrinimi.org/rainbowsend.html
Posted by: Jacqueline at Sep 29, 2007 8:56:32 PM
At my school we have Starbucks in the bookstore and Java City in the library. Starbucks has better coffee but Java City takes Flexbucks that come with the meal plan.
Posted by: Ray at Sep 29, 2007 11:11:08 PM
mostly it has turned the library into a recreation facility.
The library was always a recreation facility, in part. I went to college pre-Starbucks, indeed, pre-Internet. So what? Sometimes we studied. Sometimes we socialized. There was a greasy spoon across the street that it was easy enough to visit for coffee or a late burger.
What's changed?
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Sep 29, 2007 11:23:18 PM
Most libraries in the UK do not allow food or drink in the libraries. So I do not see any correlation between a coffee shop and library usage.
My faculty has a great, manned common room with subsidised coffee, smoothies, soups and food. There are also vending machines which work out-of-hours. But one still has to leave the library to use any of them.
The main library I use is the British Library, a butlered, quiet and civilised space where pencils and laptops are the only things allowed in the reading rooms. I doubt they will let coffee near da Vinci's notebooks any time soon, just so many more could be attracted to the Library!
Posted by: Shefaly at Sep 30, 2007 2:37:29 AM
Whatever happened to a corner table at the school pub? Kids these days!
Posted by: George at Sep 30, 2007 3:00:55 AM
This is a TEST Comment
Salman Khan
Salman Khan
http://www.google.com/
Posted by: Salman Khan at Sep 30, 2007 8:05:45 AM
I can't get my coffee on the internet, but I can the library. That's how far things have gone.
I believe I go far more often to the library with it online than I would if it were still a matter of physical travel.
Posted by: Justin R at Sep 30, 2007 8:42:05 AM
Of course students need tasty caffeine sources located inside the library!
Best Regards Pioneer
Posted by: Katalog Stron at Sep 30, 2007 10:30:43 AM
I hate the smell of coffee, and the Starbucks that opened in our university library has done nothing but keep me away. The whole library just stinks now.
Posted by: Justin at Sep 30, 2007 6:37:26 PM
I am a student at a university that has a coffee place in the library and I dont think that it has any sort of effect on getting students to read or study in the library. Most students that go to the library go there to study b/c it is quite and has resources that you need. I dont go to the library b/c i can study in my room just fine rather than walking there. Going to the library would make me lazier and wanting to stay in my room, so maybe libraries should placed in the dorms to get students in the library.
Posted by: ALEX at Sep 30, 2007 10:24:55 PM
It's interesting that caffine is actually harmful to the effectivness of
study time (http://clearinghouse.missouriwestern.edu/manuscripts/204.asp). If a university is here to educate you, and a library is here
to facilate that, then promoting caffinated beverages along with studying shows that they haven't done their research. Of course by the fact that I am blogging and know
trivial things about study habits shows that I don't study effectively either.
Posted by: tRuth at Oct 1, 2007 11:05:32 AM
"just how far things have gone"
Thats an odd metaphor in this context. How "far" have we gone from where? and, to beyond an acceptable border? What border?
What "things"? commerical invasion of libraries? Serving caffeine to 18 year olds?
And, "gone" where? Does a few libraries represent the relocation of things elsewhere?
Just asking.
Posted by: guy in the veal calf office at Oct 1, 2007 6:58:02 PM
