Where does the Library Fit?

Graduation is approaching much too quickly for comfort, and this impending end, of course, implies new beginnings. To put it more succinctly, I've started to apply for jobs. As part of a job application that I was just filling out, I was asked to write a statement on where I think the library fits into the larger academic institution. What a great question! I thought I'd share what I wrote, largely to hear what you all think about this. How have you seen the library fit into the wider institution OR if your imagination held sway over your world, how would you want it to fit in?

Ok, here are my thoughts:

There is a reason, I think, that great pieces of literature, like The Name of the Rose, or Borges’s short stories, or Something Wicked This Way Comes, have been written about the library. It is a place where minds can meet, across time, across language, and across geography, through pages (be they paper or electronic), without regard to income, or education. Libraries are beguiling precisely because they are so free—of prejudice and of cost. Libraries are mysterious because there are so many words, images, people, and potential secrets in them—but they are a mystery that anyone is welcome to solve.

While the experience of higher education is all about the meeting of minds in classrooms, and on group projects, the library gives the learner a chance to discover ideas entirely on her own terms. That is why I see the library as a perfect, and necessary, compliment to classroom learning. While we sometimes want to be guided in our learning: given a reading list, assigned a topic, asked a guiding question; sometimes we want to be able to develop our own reading list, research our own topic, and ask our own questions (of an interesting book, or of a very helpful and eager librarian!).

In my work at Seattle Central Community College, I see the library filling myriad roles in students’ lives that would not be filled in its absence. The library is bursting with students, but it is also a place of quiet study and contemplation. The library is a place with big tables and small study rooms where students can tutor each other or work together on projects. The reference desk is a first point of contact for students looking for help—help finding research, help finding the tutoring center, help using a computer or printing out a paper. It is a place, outside of the short minutes in the classroom, where students can think, work, see each other, and get assurance and guidance.

For this reason, I think that the library is a logical place to situate information technologies like computers, DVD players, and assistive devices, because they are a continuation of older information technologies (like books). It is often a logical place to house other support services like tutoring and writing centers, because students naturally think of the library as a place to turn when they need help.

Admittedly, I am library-centric, but I do believe that, just as we gather like things together on the shelves, so should we gather like things together in (or through) the library. As part of an institution of higher education, I see the library as a hub of enrichment for students, faculty, and staff, where all are welcome to inform themselves—and get help doing it. It is a place where the walls between disciplines can dissolve, and where we can all get something done.