Comment by Akinato | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Akinato | Hacker News Reader

I feel like libraries should probably be compartmentalized more. A room for the main catalogue of books, a room filled with outlets and empty tables for studying and working, and a room with computers / empty desks with outlets for those who need them + the printers.

I feel like libraries try to do too much all in the same space. The computer people bug the 'study-ers' with their typing, clicking, and audio. The printers are loud and disruptive. The desks are sprinkled throughout the aisles of books, wherever space could be found -- which makes it harder to navigate around to find the books you need. There's no need to be surrounded by books once you've gotten the one you need.

They're forcing 3 entirely different sets of people into the same space. If people are visiting with 3 different goals just separate the space according to those goals. Have a dedicated and separate computer lab, a dedicated room to rows and rows of books, and a dedicated room for studying -- with side rooms for group studying.

I suspect the study spaces are quieter embedded in the shelving areas, than they would be if the same square footage was used to clump all the study space together.

My old unis main library was a model. Massive grand reading room that was dead silent (with felted chairs to keep them silent) and a statue of an angel without a head to motivate you. Open collaborative areas. Computer labs in separate wings.

It also had a dozen floors of stacks in a tower with little tables and cubicles shoved in on the edges and near the elevator because as you said, the shelving muffles noises.

I hated how the workspaces were nestled in the stacks. at any time during finals about 95% percent of these would be occupied, and I'd have to hunt through the stacks to check each one. infuriatingly, I'd often discover that a table had turned over just after passing it. it would sometimes take twenty minutes just to find a place to sit down and start working.

This was the biggest pet peeve for me. That and you couldn't even really enjoy or use those spaces, because if you spread out at all then you'd be in the way. You'd also have people circling like sharks, on top of the people pushing by to get to the books they need.

It just seemed so sub-optimal to me.

Of all the college libraries I've been in what you're describing is the typical structure I've encountered.

That gives me hope then! I'm up in Canada and all the universities I've visited / attended had the computers right near the librarian (so they could micromanage) and beside all the study desks. It always seemed sub-optimal to me.

Perhaps it's more of a small-to-mid university problem.

I feel like lots of libraries are already organized like this, and the only ones that try to put everything in one room are smaller public library branches. Certainly, the academic library I work at has these activities located on separate floors, and other libraries I can think of off the top of my head, like the Seattle Public Library, also have these activities separated.

When I really wanted to get away from everything in a library, there were always various cubbyholes in obscure corners of the stacks that you could hide in. This worked best in the sections of libraries that were more vertical than spread out though.

For us this was the motorized archive stacks in our library's basement. No one ever went down there, so you could pile up in one of the chairs and work for hours and see only one or two people.

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