14,000’s Company, 39,500’s a Crowd
Everything seemed a lot less crowded at the University of Chicago last summer than what we’re used to here. It never seemed to be difficult to find a good table at one of the libraries, and the silence was always conducive to work (wearing corduroys in the physical science library is frowned upon.) Whereas even in August, it was tough to find a quiet place to sit at UGLi. But it seemed possible that this perception was due to what you may have possibly picked up on as a negative attitude about everything A2.
After some back-of-the-envelope calculations, though, it appears that our impression has some basis in fact. An MIT study attempts to make a case for increased library space at that school, comparing the amount of space available to that of other universities and finding the good old Institute lacking. Chicago is indeed close to the top of the list, with 75 library square feet per student. MIT is at the bottom with about 23 (although at least its compact urban campus ensures that all of its libraries are within a few blocks of each other.) Of course, most of the universities compared in the study are medium-size private schools. It’s difficult to get statistics on a lot of places, but Berkeley, with 32,814 students, has 625,103 of what they call “assignable square feet” of library space; using their estimate of 0.79 assignable square feet per gross square foot, that’s about 24 library square feet per student.
So where does Michigan fit in? The U of M libraries page claims 582,981 square feet of library, if you count the remote Buhr Shelving Facility, which works out to…14.8 square feet per student. We’d write more, but we keep elbowing people.
While we’re bitching, can we also talk about the way the grad library closes at 6 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and doesn’t open until 1 p.m. on Sundays? That annoys me to no end. And the UGLi is not a substitute for the Grad. As you pointed out, it is a horrible place to try to work even at its emptier times.
Your equation that more space=quieter working conditions holds to an extent, but the students using the library have to actually believe that libraries are, by their very nature, quiet places to *work*. As far as I can tell, the undergrads who invade the grad library in droves feel that the library is merely a warm place to yammer on cell phones during the long, cold Michigan winter. I went to a very small liberal arts college with one very small library, but even if you were physically near other people, it was always quiet enough to work.
posted by Joy on September 20th, 2005 at 9:09 amNot to detract from the bitching, but if you’re looking for a quiet place to work, the study room in Rackham can be good — undergrads can’t get in there and it is usually quiet, plus, pretty. Also, one of the study rooms in the union (to the left as you walk in the front doors) used to be pretty strictly enforced as a quiet study room.
posted by Anna on September 20th, 2005 at 9:16 amyou’re right about Rackham- it’s a beautiful place to work, but only before 9 p.m. on weekdays, and not at all on weekends.
posted by Joy on September 20th, 2005 at 9:42 amThe U seems to have a lot of of buildings. If library square footage and campus housing are limited, what has the U been doing with all its interior space?
posted by JCP2 on September 20th, 2005 at 9:46 amWow, surprised about Rackham — I think it used to have better hours. Budget cuts?
posted by Anna on September 20th, 2005 at 10:32 amWell, Michigan is a huge university — there’s just a lot of people using all those buildings. Another thing that might make it even more crowded than the 14.8 figure suggests is that Chicago and MIT have much higher proportions of grad students (Chicago has more than it has undergrads), who usually have offices, often work in labs full-time if they’re in the sciences and have their own rooms, thus needing to study in the libraries less often.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on September 20th, 2005 at 11:26 amAnother beautiful place to work is the Law School’s Reading Room — very quiet and one of the most gorgeous places on campus to boot.
posted by Mike on September 20th, 2005 at 1:37 pmThe Union Study Lounge is the best of all worlds: quiet, open pretty late, attractive historic furnishings, fireplace, and you can bring coffee.
posted by Brandon on September 20th, 2005 at 4:08 pmYou’re kidding, right? I worked at the Science Library last summer (3rd and 4th floor of the UgLi) and the place was dead inside. Hell, we did people counts every 8 hours or so, and I rarely got over 20 on both floors, if memory serves right. I’d get in single digits frequently. It’s busier now, but there’s the journal reading room that’s supposed to be for silent studying and has comfy chairs. Open late, too.
The grad library, however, needs better hours.
posted by Jen on September 20th, 2005 at 10:15 pmThe Law Lib. reading room is nice, but has 2 drawbacks: (1) non-law students have to search for space to work sometimes; and (2) it’s very, very dark in there.
posted by Nick on September 21st, 2005 at 12:32 amAh - the spacious University of Chicago Libraries . . . If only our airports were as secure as the Regenstein. The horned rims must be protected from the DeVontes and Shaniquas seeking refuge in from the lake breeze in January.
posted by Seth on September 21st, 2005 at 2:42 am- It seems noteworthy to ask the question, “Why do we need a quiet room at the library?”
- I think we should make a little room and label it “The loud room”. Keep all the loud people in one room and the rest of the library to people who care about knowledge and respect the preservation and passing of ideas in “Hard Form”. Oh, and respect for others.
- I wonder if loudness in the library and potential for overdue material return have any relation?
posted by - Arcane Sapient - on September 21st, 2005 at 7:54 pmI know from my scientific study with an n of 1 (me) that loudness in the library and potential for overdue material return are inversely related. I’m quiet as a mouse in the library, yet cannot bring myself to return library books and am thus banned from borrowing books from almost every library in which I’ve ever set foot.
posted by Anna on September 21st, 2005 at 10:04 pmMy girlfriend in library school laughed at this. She noted that libraries are actually going to decrease the amount of physical storage they need, especially as the journal collections become electronic only. And while it’s nice to have extra space, there’s no mention of book-feet or any real measure that can be correlated with quality…
posted by js on September 22nd, 2005 at 10:24 amI’ll try to lure her here so that she can give you her point of view (but she hates “arguing with strangers on the internet,” which she says I do too much of).
Well, you can see from the MIT study that seating space is sort of correlated with square feet — since seating information is hard to come by, I just used this rough metric to reinforce my conviction that this is a very crowded campus with little room to study.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on September 22nd, 2005 at 11:15 amTry studying upstairs in the League. Lots of space, open fairly late, and you might luck into some buffett food from a wedding or a conference. Sometimes there’s even an open bar.
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on September 22nd, 2005 at 2:46 pmhidden library gem of town = the medical library off Catherine. imagine the ugli without the undergrads… or the ugliness…
posted by John on September 23rd, 2005 at 8:59 amthe view of campus from the top floor in the morning is breathtaking. in fact, i think i’m going there right now. ta
MIT has 23 sq ft of library space per student? I suppose it’s possible. When I was a student there, I didn’t even know they had a library, aside from the ‘music library’, which was almost too small for the deeper bass sounds.
posted by DK on September 23rd, 2005 at 9:22 pmShhh, don’t tell them about the medical library or else it won’t be empty and quiet anymore!
posted by dan on September 23rd, 2005 at 9:24 pmHey, there was that gorgeous reading room in Barker, and the humanities library wasn’t bad. But, to out myself as a fellow MIT alum, the various lounges and coffeehouses around campus were the best places to study. Michigan doesn’t really have that.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on September 23rd, 2005 at 10:59 pmHello, I am searching for a spammer in your region - can somebody help me?
posted by Murph on October 11th, 2005 at 1:22 pm