Demolished library cheats students

MY FIRST EXCURSION into a university library was on the University of California, Riverside campus.

I was attending the local community college at the time and was looking for more research material than I was able to access at the college.

I was wowed by the difference between the two institutions’ libraries — the two-year college’s collection was much smaller, of course.

So when I began attending California State University, Fresno, I was excited to be able to explore the voluminous array of written material.

One could spend hours (and I sometimes did) looking through the stacks of books and periodicals.

Being able to walk along rows and rows of readable material and being able to pick up anything that tweaked my interest was (I know it sounds sappy) a privilege I greatly valued.

But that was soon to change with the restructuring of the library.

Last Friday. I was on campus and, for the first time, saw the extent of the demolition.

“Keep Out” signs are hanging on the chain link fence that surrounds the rubble.

Twisted metal, concrete and other building materials are all that is left of one end of our library.

Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but, for me, when “Keep Out” signs surround what was once a library, I don’t feel particularly moved to go inside the part that is still standing.

What’s left is minuscule in comparison to the previous structure. The academic flavor of the university is greatly diminished.

So hell yes, I feel cheated!

Think about it. Colleges and libraries go together like colleges and football.

And while all of this is depressing to me, there is another issue. Students don’t pay less tuition in spite of this extremely inconvenient, if not entirely defeating, situation.

Rather, we continue to endure fee hikes to finance projects such as this.

Now I know what some of you are probably thinking. That is, we can go in and use the computers to find books to order.

The books are sitting in a warehouse somewhere, we’ve been told, and all we need to do is place a simple request.

But there is a problem for me and others I’ve talked to. That is, one might order literally dozens of books before finding the one needed for, say, a research topic.

One cannot always judge a book by its cover, after all; or in this case, by its title.

Therefore, the time invested in gathering material to use for a bibliography is at least, in my opinion, tripled.

And what about all of those we never see because there are no stacks that we can browse through in a specific area of interest?

To be fair, there are other services available in what is left of the library.

There is still a reference desk and a place to get periodicals. There are also some academic journals available on site and a bookcase near the front of the entrance with newly acquired books on it.

And, of course, laptops can still be checked out. I’m also aware of some other services that anyone who is interested can avail him or herself to.

But it does not begin to compensate for the feeling of great loss to me.

Regardless of the benefit future students will get from it, I still feel cheated because, academic gods willing, I will have graduated by then.

Comment on this story in the Opinion forum >>