Yes, the library
at my university is a library in an airport departure lounge's clothing. But
with no duty free. Interestingly the notion of something being free of duty
takes on a sinister meaning when considering what the role of books and the
suppliers of books (i.e. the university you are paying to make available the
literature you require to gain knowledge on the subject they are going to award
you a degree in) should be in the context of an institution of knowledge and
learning. There should be a duty to make books the centre
focus, both physically and in the "spirit" of academia.
What the
"library" - the quotation marks are always present when I refer
to what was once a library in my university - offers students now is...er,
nothing. Really there is nothing
in there except computers and various seating areas. The books are hidden away
in rooms and on other floors like stock in a warehouse. The ground floor now
resembles a phone shop. These places always make me feel a little
uncomfortable because there is nothing in them except for a few stunt
phones standing in for the 'real' ones, bored staff and various seating areas.
Next time I am in the "library" I am going to check that the odd
couple of books I occasionally see stacked on the front desk are not just
hollowed out boxes in disguise. Like those VHS cases my parents had in the '90s
that looked like leather bound books.
What all of this
seems to have done, for me at least, is create a sense of ambiguity. A
"when is a library not a library?" gag but with no punch line. If a
library is not a library then what is it? An empty space. Why are we paying
higher fees for empty space? I can pretty much predict the answer I would get
from educationalists who use words like "business facing" and
"crafting individuals" when talking about students who want to learn
more about, well, anything:
"the empty space means you can create the contents, it's up to you guys.
If your mind can conceive it, you can achieve it. Now, how about a freshly
squeezed juice and some yoga?" If anything I would suggest that, to
get thinking again, students of this generation need help from books even more
than ever. A sense of academic community arises when you see shelves and shelves
of books by people who dedicated their lives and work to thinking about stuff
you think about, trying to make sense of stuff you worry about whether it be
cures for diseases or trying to negotiate the very nature of existence.
I once said to a
friend that before coming to university I would regularly have panic attacks
just thinking about what I thought was the futility of life but after reading
the work of Nietzsche/Plath/Kafka/de Beauvoir/Bataille (I could go on) I felt
quite happy about being in the same boat with the same final non-refundable
destination, as long as these guys were along for the ride too. It's like
enduring a shit nightclub because your best mates are there. Yes, the vodka is
probably watered down. Yes, the music is indescribable and you feel older every
time you to attempt a night on the town but look your mate is with you and
you'll make the best of it together.
As a teenager (who
am I kidding? I'm on my way to 30 and still feel like this) being regularly hit
with the propaganda trotted out by the media in all its many, glorious forms, finding there are boat-loads
of others who don't actually agree is both crucial and comforting. I have been
assured that academic institutions once provided an alternative to the 'real
world' of 9-to-5-jobs-to-pay-the-bills. If, however, they now resemble a shop one
would visit at the weekend (when on two day release from such jobs) I am no
longer sure they offer any alternative and so, fellow students, we must go in search of them ourselves. And reading books is a bloody good place to
start! Books have provided me with so many examples of alternative ways to
think and live, separate from the ideologies of capitalist neo-liberalism.
Take these away and what are we left with? Empty spaces where thoughts should
be.
