According to the American Library Association, a library is “a collection of resources in a variety of formats that is organized by information professionals or other experts who provide convenient physical, digital, bibliographic, or intellectual access and offer targeted services and programs with the mission of educating, informing, or entertaining a variety of audiences and the goal of stimulating individual learning and advancing society as a whole.”
This is what the American Library Association has to say about how a library should be used, but how does this match up to the use of the library at DHS?
Presently the policy is as follows: In terms of independent use of the library, students are allowed into the library at two specific times during the day. The first one is in the time before the school day starts: from roughly 7:00 to the time of the first bell at 7:25. The second time the library is made accessible to students is during PASE period from 9:40 to 10:20. Additionally, the library is utilized as a collaborative space at various other points during the school day as well after the conclusion of the school day. Some of these other offerings include things such as serving as a meeting space for teachers and students and a space to host library sponsored events like guest speakers.
Despite these offerings, the opinion of students surrounding the usage of the library space at DHS is mixed. This is because while the library does host meetings such as the school committee, and teachers do utilize the space for their classes, the general sentiment among students seems to be that no one really ever spends a great amount of time in the library. In fact, I recall this sentiment as far back as my freshman orientation, when my mentor told us while showing my group around the building that he personally did not use the library much over the course of his high school career.
What seems to be most confusing about this trend is that the school department spent significant time and money to renovate and refresh the library last summer. This work included the replacing of furniture and carpet, as well as giving the walls a fresh coat of paint. With this in mind, one would think that a greater emphasis would be put on that space due to the infusion of school resources.
To be fair, as of recently there has been a noticeable effort by the library to host more events and attempt to bring students in. For example, the library is currently hosting a poetry series. But yet, even with these offerings, there still remains the feeling that students do not really get to utilize the space. As junior Samantha Barker said, “I don’t think it is [accessible] because there are only specific times that you are allowed into it, and when you are in there, there are classes or meetings going on so they end up kicking you out either way.”
One possible cause for this attitude is that even with these opportunities for students in the library, there does not seem to be any opportunity for students to simply just use the library as a library. No time for students to gather in the quiet space and get some independent work done or work on a group project.
Students’ attitudes toward the accessibility of the library seems to stem from a lack of freedom and choice when it comes to how they may use the library. When speaking on this issue, junior Preston Francisco said, “I feel that with the library there is no built-in time to use it.”
With this being said, as stated previously, there are designated times during the day when students may freely use the library. However, there are several important caveats with these offered times. First, in the morning most students do not arrive with enough time to actually use the library. And instead of being a quiet place, the space becomes a congregating zone for students waiting for the day to start. This makes the space undesirable for students to use for academic purposes even if they arrive early enough. In regards to the use of the library during PASE, not all students can easily access the library since only a limited amount of spaces are available through the PASE scheduling application.
In regards to this point, senior JT Appleyard said, “The times they have it open for people are not great.” So while there are modest offerings that attempt to give students choice, those offerings are not easily accessible or convenient to all students.
With this academic year coming to a close in under 30 days, it seems unlikely that there will be any significant changes to the library for the remainder of the year. Still, I think that the purpose of the library in the daily lives of students needs to be reexamined in order to figure out how that space can best serve all students and their various needs.
