It’s no secret that many of the library’s rules aren’t followed.

Librarian Bridget Knightly cited noise as the primary infraction of library rules. According to her, the two-thirds or so of the library farthest from the door are designated as a space for studying silently. A visit reveals that this is often only followed in the third of the library farthest from the entrance; the middle third, which contains the Macs, is often far from silent.

“I think that for the most part, the quiet study area is often treated as a sacred space, particularly the study carrels in the back of the room,” librarian Lynne Cohen said. “But, I think that once you get into the muddy area of where the Macs are, we’re saying that it’s silent, people want to work together, and sometimes it can get a little bit noisier.”

Knightly also mentioned seeing waste from eating in the library, which is not allowed. Cohen and Knightly also said that students often do not return library materials once they’ve finished using them.

Clearly, these rules exist for a reason, and that’s to make the library the best possible work space. When we, as students, don’t follow them, not only does it reflect badly on us, but it makes the library a less usable space. Therefore, we owe it to ourselves and to the school community to create a culture of respect for these policies.

That being said, the library is the go-to space for many students to meet up with their friends and discuss non-academic subjects. This won’t change until the school creates another space, either through designing a new space for students to meet, or by changing an underused existing space so that it will attract students.

Cohen and Knightly expressed a similar view. Cohen said that the rules of the library are unfair if students don’t have another space to go. She praised Newton North’s cafeteria for being an inviting space for students to go, and as a model we could follow.

Knightly cited the School Within A School lounge as the type of space that could be created for students to go to instead of the library.

“SWS, you know, they have their lounge, so they don’t use our library very often at all unless they need a resource,” she said.

I think Cohen put the issue perfectly when she stated that not all student discussions are academically oriented.

“My feeling is that we all want the same thing,” she said. “In an open campus environment, we want a space for kids to be able to talk about stuff, and sometimes it’s going to go somewhere other than the realm of academia.”

She added that the need for a better area will be exacerbated by the growing school population.

“There needs to be a quiet space to study, and my concern is as the school gets hugely bigger, which it is, that that’s going to just become more of an issue, if that’s not attended to,” Cohen said. “We need another space.”

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