The Ralph Brown Draughon Library is in the process of preparing for the construction of the Mell Street building that will add more study spaces and classrooms to campus.
While the structural plans are laid out, Auburn has hired an anthropologist consultant on what sort of services should be provided between the Mell building and the library, according to Marcia Boosinger, RBD Library head of public services.
Boosinger also said that the consultant interviewed 60 students and collected comment cards from 150 students speaking about study habits and ideal study spaces.
They plan to use this feedback and some student-made sketches and report back to the Mell building designer.
Although Boosinger feels bad that some current study spaces will temporarily be compromised during construction of the Mell building, she also looks forward to the results.
“Our problem in the next year and a half is going to be the construction, because that’s going to eat into some study space,” Boosinger said. “We’re going into some of that study space for that year and a half, and I feel very badly for that, but after that it’s going to be really wonderful.”
In the meantime, Boosinger said that Library Services is doing what it can to improve the library as is.
Approximately every other year, the library surveys students to see what services, spaces and furniture they want such as more quiet space and furniture on the fourth floor, according to Boosinger.
“Take a chance on the fourth floor … what we’ve noticed when we first made the fourth floor quiet, we would get requests to quiet people down,” Boosinger said. “I’ve noticed it’s communicated well to all the freshmen, and it’s kind of become the norm.”
Boosinger also said that they provided L-shaped tables on the first floor, because students wanted to be able to easily access their computer and other study materials at the same time.
She also discussed what students can expect from other study spaces.
“The second floor is very dynamic and ‘buzzy’ as we like to call it," Boosinger said. "It’s not loud, but you can see people clustered together doing group work."
Boosinger also touched on some of the library’s resources that students might not take enough advantage of.
“I think something students don’t know a lot about is that we do have a number of individual study carrels that can be checked out on a short-term basis,” Boosinger said. “So you can get yourself a little room that’s really only big enough for one person and close the door.”
Boosinger thinks some students forget that some of the study rooms you check out in the library aren’t just for groups.
“I think when students think of rooms in the library they think a lot about a group study room, but we do have the individual spaces,” Boosinger said.
Boosinger also offered advice for those who want to find the less-populated areas of the library.
“I think because we are pretty popular and there are a lot of people here it’s harder to get away,” Boosinger said. “I always find the farther out you go away from the center, around the perimeter, by the windows, things tend to be quieter.”
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