What is a library for? Do ISU staff and students know how to answer this question?

The case is this: On September 18, I went to the library and tried to find a quiet place to study.

I arrived to the fourth floor at 8 p.m. and there was a “group meeting” already. They were annoying to other students and a student had asked them to keep down their volume but was ignored.

At 9 p.m., I went to the circulation desk and asked the staff to deal with this situation. A staff member finally came, after 15 minutes (Fifteen minutes is a long time if you are in an annoying environment).

However, the staff member just asked the group not to eat in the library and then went away. Certainly, the warning of “do not eat in the library” didn’t help the situation much.

Here are my questions: To all ISU students — do you know how to behave properly in the library? If you know that, do you really do that?

To the library: Library 160 is a requirement for every student (You can’t graduate if you don’t have this 0.5 credit class). The objectives of this class is to tell ISU students the basic rules of the library and the library’s facilities, such as the group study room.

However, the above situation still happened. Is it the time to evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of this class?

To the library staff: what are your responsibilities?

As a representative of the library, is it your responsibility to carry out the policies of the library? Is it your job to protect other students’ right of using the library?

The library is a place for everyone.

Everyone has the right to have a clean, comfortable environment to study and to gain knowledge here on campus — let’s start at the library.

Sylvian H.T. Leung

Senior

Finance