A visit to the old library

This afternoon I decided to check out the university library for books that I might list as references for the courses I am teaching this school term. That wasn't the only reason. Having relied mainly on my own books as well as books available in our department's reading room, I had not been to the university library for nearly ten years and was therefore also very curious to see what it was like after all this time.

Actually I wasn't expecting much. For the lack of support from the government and alumni, our university library has been low on funds that are necessary to purchase new books, maintain subscriptions to scientific journals and keep the collection updated as a whole. As a result, the library has become more of an archive of old outdated books and journals instead of the a state-of-the-art library that one usually expects of a university library. And this was true even when I was a student: I remember browsing through books published in the 60s and 70s when I had to do research for some project or homework.

Anyway, after trudging up the hill to the library building, I entered the building and was disappointed to find that the place was no longer cooled using a central air-conditioning system. Instead there were several electric stand fans placed in strategic locations that did little to ventilate the vast floor space. The heat wasn't so bad then since there were hardly any students around--which in itself was a shock to me. But I suppose most had already gone home for the weekend since only a few classes were scheduled on Fridays nowadays. In any case, I still wondered how warm it would be if the place was filled with students browsing through the collection and sitting on the old familiar library desks.

There was a slight improvement though in the library's services: there were computer terminals placed on long high desks for people to browse through the library's online card catalogue. Still, I noticed that most students continued to use the old card catalogue that stood at one side of the room. Perhaps only the most recent acquisitions were included in the online database.

I looked up the call numbers of a few books I was interested in then proceeded to look through the shelves. There I was not surprised to find that there were hardly any new books: Nearly all books I found on the shelf were published at least ten years ago. Come to think of it, while browsing through books looking for references for my courses, I don't think I ever came across a book published in the last five years. Nevertheless, I decided to take note of a few that my students might find useful at least as a sources of additional examples and exercises.

I was pleased though to find a book on a field that I was interested in and wanted to know more about. Yes, it was old just like the rest but I thought it might at least be useful for brushing up on the subject.

After several minutes of not finding anything else that I might want to borrow, I went up to the circulation counter and asked to apply for a borrower's card. I was made to fill up an application card and show my ID for verification purposes.

Then a funny thing happened: the library staff at the counter couldn't find a single blank borrower's card for faculty members. He sifted through papers in his desk drawer and found a few but none were printed properly. He consulted another staff member who also went through his things. Still, they couldn't find the right borrower's card, only the usual ones for undergraduate students and for graduate students. They eventually went to someone who seemed like their supervisor who went through several more drawers and filing cabinets.

All the while, I was wondering if I might be in fact the first faculty member to apply for a borrower's card for years. Perhaps the university's faculty members seldom visited the library itself (indeed, I didn't spot any other faculty member at the library then) and relied on the more updated collections found in the different reading rooms. Or else, many got their materials directly from the Internet. Ah, how times have changed. But what a pity. That's probably the reason why many are unaware of the poor state of the university library.

In any case, after a good ten minutes the library staff finally found a borrower's card in an old pile stashed somewhere and gave it to me to fill up.

It was then that another thing struck me: the library's borrowing system was woefully outdated itself. I had been to many libraries elsewhere in the world where books were bar-coded and simply scanned along with a the borrower's ID to complete a book borrowing transaction. Here, it was still the old manual borrower's card system.

Ah, well. One will just have to make the most of what is available and what the university can afford.