Almost everyday here gives me another example of something I took for granted in the U.S., in St. Louis or at Saint Louis University School of Law. Whether it's free electricity at a coffee shop or easy access to high speed wireless, my once abstract sense that what we often call the basics are really extravagances has only been reinforced.
Take, for example, the library. I often complain that SLU's law library isn't open late enough or not at all on certain days. I mean, on Saturday I hardly get started until the afternoon and they have the nerve to close at 5:00. Geez, do they have lives they want to live or something?
Here, the library is only open until 8:00 nightly,on Saturday from 9:00 to 1:00, and not at all on Sunday.
I feel like a lot of this complaint stems from my hearsay knowledge of the glory that is the Washington University School of Law library. Legend has it that this mythical place is beautiful, safe, and OPEN 24 HOURS!!! Although I have never set foot in this pristine depository of legal wisdom, I still use it as a point of comparison for our library which cruelly closes at midnight daily, with the exception of Saturday.
Well, no more. Now that I have experienced what a library can be, I hope to remember what I have at SLU. First of all, there are two libraries in my building although I may only enter one of them. It seems that the determining factor is whether I am doing a Master's Pro or a Master's Recherche.
If I am only a Master's Pro, I cannot enter the research library and am damned to study at the undergraduate library. So, I go to the undergrad library where there are people talking pretty much constantly, albeit at low levels. At first I thought that this was just another example of how things are different here and that being quiet in the library didn't translate. However, there were signs saying silent in about 10 languages so I thought it was likely that people were supposed to be quiet.
I went to the librarian to ask what the protocol was for getting people to be quiet. Was I supposed to say something or were the employees of the library supposed to say something? I should note that these weren't student workers. These are career professionals, librarians, whose whole life is dedicated to this job. They told me that it would be better for me to say something to them.
Ok. So, I just left instead because I wasn't really sure how to politely say stfu in French and that was all I could think of at that moment. The next day, determined to use the one ostensibly quiet study space available to me, I returned to the library. Predictably, generations of not caring about silence in the library had not changed overnight and people began talking again.
I asked a friend how to ask them to quit talking and she responded "Tu peux parler moins fort, s'il vous plait?". I should have known then that the concept didn't exist because that question translates roughly as "Could you speak less loudly please?".
In any case, I tried it and it seemed to work. The students looked at me like I was crazy (some of this is because I dared to ask them to speak less loudly and some of it is because of my American accented French) but they indeed stopped talking...for a couple of minutes. Then, they started again. I asked them once more, and they stopped again.
The problem is that we are in these giant rooms where there can be anywhere from 2-60 or so people, maybe more. So even if I manage to get two students to agree to be quiet for a minute or two, there are always more arriving. In reality, the conversation of the two students is not problematic, but when 30 pairs of students begin "speaking quietly", all of a sudden there is really no way to study.
In the end, I just left. I have since found that there are always empty classrooms to study in so i just go there. Of course, the whole building closes at 10:00 so I leave almost every night when the janitor comes in to clean the room. I never thought I would say it but I really miss Omer Poos, and not just because of its funny name.
Take, for example, the library. I often complain that SLU's law library isn't open late enough or not at all on certain days. I mean, on Saturday I hardly get started until the afternoon and they have the nerve to close at 5:00. Geez, do they have lives they want to live or something?
Here, the library is only open until 8:00 nightly,on Saturday from 9:00 to 1:00, and not at all on Sunday.
I feel like a lot of this complaint stems from my hearsay knowledge of the glory that is the Washington University School of Law library. Legend has it that this mythical place is beautiful, safe, and OPEN 24 HOURS!!! Although I have never set foot in this pristine depository of legal wisdom, I still use it as a point of comparison for our library which cruelly closes at midnight daily, with the exception of Saturday.
Well, no more. Now that I have experienced what a library can be, I hope to remember what I have at SLU. First of all, there are two libraries in my building although I may only enter one of them. It seems that the determining factor is whether I am doing a Master's Pro or a Master's Recherche.
If I am only a Master's Pro, I cannot enter the research library and am damned to study at the undergraduate library. So, I go to the undergrad library where there are people talking pretty much constantly, albeit at low levels. At first I thought that this was just another example of how things are different here and that being quiet in the library didn't translate. However, there were signs saying silent in about 10 languages so I thought it was likely that people were supposed to be quiet.
I went to the librarian to ask what the protocol was for getting people to be quiet. Was I supposed to say something or were the employees of the library supposed to say something? I should note that these weren't student workers. These are career professionals, librarians, whose whole life is dedicated to this job. They told me that it would be better for me to say something to them.
Ok. So, I just left instead because I wasn't really sure how to politely say stfu in French and that was all I could think of at that moment. The next day, determined to use the one ostensibly quiet study space available to me, I returned to the library. Predictably, generations of not caring about silence in the library had not changed overnight and people began talking again.
I asked a friend how to ask them to quit talking and she responded "Tu peux parler moins fort, s'il vous plait?". I should have known then that the concept didn't exist because that question translates roughly as "Could you speak less loudly please?".
In any case, I tried it and it seemed to work. The students looked at me like I was crazy (some of this is because I dared to ask them to speak less loudly and some of it is because of my American accented French) but they indeed stopped talking...for a couple of minutes. Then, they started again. I asked them once more, and they stopped again.
The problem is that we are in these giant rooms where there can be anywhere from 2-60 or so people, maybe more. So even if I manage to get two students to agree to be quiet for a minute or two, there are always more arriving. In reality, the conversation of the two students is not problematic, but when 30 pairs of students begin "speaking quietly", all of a sudden there is really no way to study.
In the end, I just left. I have since found that there are always empty classrooms to study in so i just go there. Of course, the whole building closes at 10:00 so I leave almost every night when the janitor comes in to clean the room. I never thought I would say it but I really miss Omer Poos, and not just because of its funny name.
1 comment:
I love this story, Brother - a student's perspective of a library as place, and staff (non)response.
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