Library-ing on New Year’s Eve

I have to admit something that is perhaps a rather shameful thing for a self-professed bibliophile to admit: I don’t like libraries. Or, perhaps I should phrase that as I dislike going to the library. It’s been a lifelong process — getting me to go to libraries (and stay in them longer than five minutes). Though certainly not to the same extent as, say, frat parties, libraries involve wrangling with a bunch of social norms. And I’ve never been one for social wrangling.

Perhaps the one thing I like most about Ohio State is that I’ve rarely had to physically stay in a library while here. I’ve been able to search for and reserve books online. I simply dart into the science and engineering library, grab the book I’ve digitally reserved, and dart out. Very little interpersonal interaction involved.

Libraries, at least at the educational institutions I’ve attended, have always involved lots of people and lots of distractions. And though reading rooms tend to be quieter than cafes or street corners, the silences are overwhelmed with noise — pages turning, clocks ticking, coughs languishing, air circulating — and the visual stillness is overwhelmed with eyes and other unreadable body parts.

Nonverbals abound in libraries. Nonverbals and I don’t always get along.

Upon learning that 1) the library was open today and 2) hardly anyone was there, I ventured out. I managed to stay for nearly three hours, probably a record of some sort for me. I went there to work on my dissertation prospectus, which is ending up a multimedia project. Instead of sifting through book-like things, I had aimed to record photos, video, and ambient noises. Eventually, I located a suitably lonely table, turned around, and found myself parked in front of several rows of the Journal of Mental Deficiency Research. (Which was right near Autism, the journal.)

I defaced some scholarly journals with post-it notes.

Journal of Mental Deficiency Research [with a post-it that says "pathology (to the max)]
Journal of Mental Deficiency Research [with a post-it that says “pathology (to the max)]

Pink notecard stuck into the stacks reads ENTRY INTO THE DOMAIN OF SYMBOLS
In one of the ‘enlightening’ (gag) Autism articles, an author mused about an autistic child’s ‘entry into the domain of symbols’ (aka non-echolalic speech). I went notecard-happy on several cognitive studies/psychology periodicals. DX that, symbol arbiters.
A bandaid sits against a book titled AUTISM.
This collection was in dire need of some pathologically ineffectual charity. And I had no shortage of bandaids.
A notecard bearing the words TRUE LANGUAGE sits in a recycling bin
Recycling that tired idea of there being one “true language.” Because goodness knows that what autistic kids/adults have isn’t language, isn’t even symbolic.
The words TRY HARDER painted on a stair
Try harder: Advice for researchers everywhere, myself included.

9 thoughts on “Library-ing on New Year’s Eve”

  3. Ben: The new library is really, really nice inside. But it definitely wasn’t built for book storage purposes. (From what I’ve heard, it was built/designed to attract people.)

    Ari: Thanks! You too!

  4. A bibliophile that doesn’t like libraries. I suppose, in a sense, that would be considered strange–but then a school library (in my experience) has very little to do with books. And then there’s the thing where more and more self-professed libraries are becoming multi-media centers where all sorts of media can be experienced as well as collected and borrowed.

    I’ve always liked libraries and book stores. Though, I’ve never really gotten the point of staying in a library to read or study. For me, its mostly the smell and the ambience of so many books, so many choices. Besides, I’ve loved many a book that I probably wouldn’t have ever sought if I hadn’t found it in such a collection of books.

    But to stay in such a place and actually work. No, that’s no good.

  5. Stephanie: I think you’ve done a better job describing it than I have! I do love books… and if libraries were emptied of people, I’d love them. But yes, school libraries — ick. Especially as study spaces. They just do not work for me.

  6. Hah, those are awesome.

    There’s one particular act of obscurely humorous tampering I’m often tempted to engage in at bookstores: reshelving. I’ll sometimes find a creationist book shelved in the “Science” or “Biology” section, which is clearly wrong: it should be in “Religious Fiction.”

    I’m also with you on libraries generally being too busy to actually sit down and read in, though I quite liked my university library for doing this. Especially in the stacks, you could sit there thumbing through journals, or random books, for an hour or two and no one would come anywhere near you.

  7. Aspie Rhetor: Most of the time I spend in the library I spend in the stacks (luckily, my local library still has those!). Fortunately for me (but unfortunately for society), there are fewer people in the stacks. Most seem to be in the computer lab or the multimedia centers.

  8. Lindsay: Hooray for reshelving! I’ve done that at the campus Barnes & Nobles a few times — you know, placing Jenny McCarthy’s work in the fantasy section. I wonder if there’s a separate section for horror…

    Stephanie: The stacks at our new library were remarkably quiet on New Year’s Eve. I might try it again sometime, though I think this library often tends to be crowded because of its newness.

  9. Love the post-it defacement. There needs to be more of this in libraries . . . and everywhere else really.

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