I seldom go to the library for books anymore. Don’t get me wrong; I love reading, but I think that academic books are there for one purpose, and that is the access of information. In the age of the Internet, everything that I need to know can readily be found online, whether it is from Wikipedia, an online database or Google books. College students today go to the library for different reasons than college students 20 years ago. Personally, I go to the library to study quietly, as do most of my peers, and it seems that the planners responsible for the temporary relocation of Penrose did not understand this. Penrose@Driscoll is unsuitable for studying and the University of Denver fails to provide an alternative location.
Driscoll is the social building of the university. Located in the center of campus, not only does it contain a coffee shop, the university bookstore, Driscoll underground, a pub and other places where students regularly congregate, it is also how most students cross Evans Avenue.
The current arrangement of library services wouldn’t be a problem if an alternate study location were provided. I live as a freshman in Johnson-MacFarlane hall, and my hallway is far too social to study effectively in my room at any reasonable hour. Similar problems exist in other freshmen dorms. Rumors abound of quiet places to study in the graduate schools, but the information is incomplete.
Some graduate schools don’t allow undergraduates to use their libraries and study facilities. If there are study rooms that can be used, it’s almost always taken. No one actually knows where to go if you need to study. Most of us are not willing to take two hours to find a suitable study area. The only options available are off campus, such as Stella’s Coffeehaus or the Tattered Cover. Getting to these places takes valuable time and energy that we should be using to study. At an academic institution like the University of Denver, it should be incredibly easy to learn. That’s not the case here.
Today most college students use libraries to study. The placement of the library in Driscoll fails to acknowledge or provide for the most necessary need of peace and quiet. This is unacceptable. I will go through four quarters of school, four strenuous examination periods before I have access to a proper university library. The University must provide information about and access to suitable study places. The fact that they do not makes me want to submit several transfer applications.
