Deserted No More

Few articles caused as much of a stir among academic librarians as Scott Carlson's November 2001 Chronicle of Higher Education piece, "The Deserted Library."

But for Tjalda Nauta, Carlson's piece caused more than a stir. It helped end her 19-year tenure at the Bentley College library (Waltham, MA). "I won't blame [my departure] directly on the article," says Nauta, who was then the director of libraries at Bentley. "But the timing was bad."

Not long after the Chronicle piece appeared, Nauta says she had a memorable meeting with an administrator at Bentley. "His first announcement to me," she recalls, "was basically 'I don't believe we need libraries.'" Less than inspired by that level of support from her administration, Nauta ultimately resigned. Now director of the library at Rhode Island College (RIC) in Providence, Nauta, like many of her fellow librarians, disagreed with what she then saw as the Chronicle's underlying premise—that the advent of the Internet had diminished the need for the campus library. But Nauta concedes that her views on the article have softened over the past year.

"I remember how indignant I was—how indignant we all were," Nauta recalls. "I look at that article very differently now. When it came out it was as if [the Chronicle] was saying this is the end of the library…. It was [really] saying that the orientation of libraries is going to be different. And that's absolutely right. We are adapting."

On a Tuesday in February, the Monroe Library at Loyola University in New Orleans is almost completely deserted. Of course, that's because this particular Tuesday happens to be Mardi Gras, and the library is closed. Every other day the Monroe Library is the most popular place on campus (see sidebar, p. 35). "We've seen a tremendous increase in the number of students coming into our building and an increase in book circulation," says Mary Lee Sweat, dean of libraries at Loyola.

Indeed, after years of declining traditional usage statistics appeared to chart the nadir of the campus library, at least in the eyes of some observers, the rising numbers at Loyola now tell a different story. Despite some gloomy prognoses for the campus library during the 1990s Internet boom, the campus library appears to be experiencing a renaissance.

At RIC, for example, annual gate count at the library had declined steadily during the early years of the Internet, from 331,530 visitors in 1993–94 to a low of 240,948 in 1998–99. But since 2000, gate count at RIC has increased. Gate count for 2001–02 was back up to a healthy 282,501, its highest point since 1995–96. Figures thus far for 2002–03 put gate count on pace to rise again. Circulation figures, Nauta says, are also on the rise. And RIC is not alone.

According to a report in the March 2 edition of the Chicago Tribune, Illinois academic libraries, from research institutions such as Northwestern University to small private colleges like Elmhurst College, have also booked rising gate counts and usage statistics. At Illinois Wesleyan University, which opened its new Ames Library last year with more computers, more books, and a variety of instructional space, Library Director Sue Stroyan told reporters that weekly visits to the library have tripled, now up to 1200 a week, an impressive figure for a school with an enrollment under 2000.

At Loyola, the spacious new Monroe Library offers users five times as much space as its predecessor. Sweat says there has been no trouble filling the space with students. "Physically, the library is at the center of the campus, and it has literally changed traffic patterns on campus," she notes. "It has become a real social as well as intellectual center."

Brian Coutts, dean of libraries at Western Kentucky University (WKU), has also seen an increase in gate counts and circulation. "We don't think it happened just because it happened," Coutts says. "We took some proactive steps to make that happen."

Today's campus library, Coutts says, is more than just a place to get resources. It's a destination that supports new, technology-driven teaching, learning, and research patterns, offering everything from books to digital databases to a social space for students to gather.

The basic idea, says Loyola's Sweat, is to offer students "one-stop shopping." At Loyola's Monroe Library, not only do students get help with finding resources and doing research, but librarians also offer a range of instructional services. "If you want students to use your library," Sweat explains, "you want to offer them everything they need. You don't want to have to send them to other places on campus."

"What the younger students really seem to like," RIC's Nauta observes, "is to sit with a laptop plugged into our wireless network, with their feet up." Other students, she notes, prefer a quiet place where they can spread out by themselves and not be disturbed. "Others like to sit in large groups and work together," adds Nauta. The library at RIC, Nauta says, now accommodates all those various student preferences, including the installation of a wireless network, 30 laptops for loan, and new public workstations.

Libraries have also learned from their competition, such as bookstores and Internet cafés. Many have altered their policies and practices, permitting or offering food and drink and installing comfortable furniture and an array of leisure programming, as well as multimedia instruction rooms, group study areas, and atriums where students can talk and collaborate on projects.

At WKU, Coutts says the library's resurgence is predicated on campus partnerships. For example, the library joined with the campus food service department to build a popular café. "The library also partnered with student government to bring entertainment to the café and with the Art Guild on campus to redecorate the lower part of the library's lounge. Another venture with the campus counseling center offers special programs in the library on everything from relationships to stress management. Through an alliance with the English Department, the WKU library has also opened a writing center to help students with their papers—offering assistance with everything from grammar and style to proper research.

Coutts also struck a deal with the campus IT department. In exchange for a small space in the library, that partnership has given library patrons what they really seem to want in the digital age: free printing. "With all the databases available now, students like to search and print articles."

Unlike rebounding gate counts and circulation figures in campus libraries, however, reference requests, librarians say, have not gone up.

Michael Gorman, dean of libraries at California State University (CSU), Fresno, says that lower reference statistics could mean any number of things. "What's a reference question today?" Gorman asks. "A reference question years ago might have been, 'Do you have Time magazine?'" Today Gorman says such basic questions are easily answered on the library's web site. "There is a great drop in the most elementary reference questions," Gorman explains, "but if you counted the more substantial reference questions— 'Can you help me with my paper on Heidegger,'—I'd argue that the number is probably about the same."

Another key figure that has stayed down is the use of current periodicals. Since 1993–94, Nauta says that she has seen a 76 percent drop in the use of periodicals. "Extraordinary," she says. "We were able to track issues by barcode, and we couldn't believe how much use dropped." Those figures are mirrored at CSU, says Gorman, where current periodical use is also down roughly 80 percent.

Some of that is certainly attributable to the increasing popularity of aggregated databases and e-journals. But part of that decrease, Gorman says, points to the need for more library instruction. "There is still a tremendous need for library instruction in general and critical thinking," Gorman says. That, he says, would help students get away from the alarming practice of using the first online source that fits and help to foster better judgment when it comes to searching for, accessing, and evaluating sources.

Librarians also say that the circulation of books is likely getting a boost from what one librarian called a "post-Internet bounce." In the early days of the Internet, digital euphoria suggested that everything would soon be available at the click of mouse, obviating the need for the traditional library. As the Internet has progressed, however, that has not happened. That realization is helping to drive traffic back to the library.

Nauta says book circulation is on the rise at RIC. And unlike the situation with e-journals, e-books have yet to take off among students. Gorman agrees. "We still circulate a lot of books," he says. Librarians also report an increase in the number of faculty who are requiring students to use traditional resources and not just web-based resources in their work. "Because of the convenience of the Internet, students will always turn there first," says RIC's Nauta. "Faculty now are eager to impress upon them that the whole world of information is not on the Internet."

Despite the resurgence of the campus library in recent years, the notion of "the deserted library" still casts a long shadow on many campuses. The decision throughout the 1990s, by many administrators, to back off on construction or capital improvement plans has left libraries short of space. Given the economic uncertainties facing the nation, it's likely that at those schools whose administrators underestimated the future of the campus library during the Internet boom, librarians will have to make due.

On the other hand, many schools forged ahead with libraries designed to meet both the digital and traditional needs of students and faculty. The University of Arizona, which opened its Information Commons in 2002, offers a space that gives students and faculty access to traditional resources as well as computers, multimedia, and high-speed network connections. The space also hosts live "support specialists," most of whom are librarians; meeting spaces; wired classrooms; and an environment that facilitates both private and collaborative study.

Other models are also emerging. At the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), administrators are now examining a plan that would place a network of smaller, computer-based libraries throughout the campus. Tom Wilding, director of libraries at UTA, said that the original vision for a new main library had been drawn up four to five years ago. Then one day, Wilding recalls, UTA's president took him to lunch and floated an idea. "He said, 'What if we went in a different direction?' He wasn't saying that libraries were not important, not at all," says Wilding. "He just wanted to know how I felt about doing something different."

"I thought a lot about what the library would be in the 21st century. I didn't want to have a great 20th-century library in the 21st century," says Wilding. Eventually the master plan that called a new main library the "highest priority project" was shelved at UTA, replaced by a model based on UTA's popular electronic business library. Wilding says a network of similar libraries—situated within academic units—in support of UTA's existing main library is now in the works. "It really makes you stop and think what the role of the library is in the 21st century," says Wilding.

As technology continues to change the learning and research patterns of students and faculty, campus libraries are sure to look different in the coming decades. What they won't be, librarians say, is deserted.

The real challenge now, librarians say, is not getting students inside library walls but marketing library services outside the library. "I'm not too concerned with bringing people through the gate," says Illinois Wesleyan's Stroyan. "We don't have a problem with that." What Stroyan says she hopes to do through various marketing efforts is create better awareness of library services. "For first-year students [that means] letting them know that we can help them understand their assignments and what tools we have to help them. For seniors, letting them know that librarians are here to work with them, one on one, with their research assignments."

Such sentiments serve to remind users of the most important resource found in any campus library: librarians. "If you look at student satisfaction surveys, the library is almost always ranked the top institution on campus among students," says CSU's Gorman. That's not because of comfortable couches and lattes, he adds. "Any place you go in the library you can find someone who is looking to help you. You can't find that anywhere else on campus."