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Message board > Libraries Tempting Students!! How????With Coffee!!!
Libraries Tempting Students!! How????With Coffee!!!
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anitarobi
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Just imagine for a second a perfect world - a cafeteria where sts would sit down for a cup of coffee (or whatever) and share their thoughts on books or even exchange books(which they borrowed from a library)... oh, wait, that was back in my age.... bah, time travelling can be confusing!
PS: sorry, I �m kidding. Have to go now. Thanks, Nebal, for an obviously challenging post! Interesting people here, I must say... Have fun you all! (PPS: if anyone thinks I �m avoiding the real issue, I �m not. I already said what I mean in a previous reply, I �m just in a special mood tonight) |
20 Aug 2009
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Zora
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Now all us bookworms do not realize something, but to a non-reader a library is an imposing place. Why not make it more welcoming? Try to reach out to them in some way? Heck some churches in England are selling coffee too to their congregation... Don �t hear the priests telling us that God and coffee are incompatible! They are just happy that they are getting more people coming to mass. And to me this is the very same idea. If we keep up with our old ideas, one day libraries might be an obsolete place, a thing of the past since many young people are not interested in books like they used to be.
Also.. many of you think its a bad idea, but I can �t see why it would be?
-In the picture you can see that the coffee serving part is on the outer part of the library, not in the middle.
- There are students working there!! Low and behold, responsibility!
- The students are NOT acting in a rude loud manner. Most are standing quietly, one is even studying. They are in a library after all...
- Sticky pages! Come on.. who hasn �t spilt food on a library book at home - or a DVD rental???
Anyhow that is my view on it. I think it �s a new trend and personally, anything that gets students to read is a very good thing in my mind.
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20 Aug 2009
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spring
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For some-including me- libraries are like a second home.
Home represents comfort for me.
So my dream library should be in such a design that on every condition I would choose to go there for relaxation.I like reading lying on the bed for instance and of course with a coffee beside me. Sometimes there can even be soft music at the background.
I know mine is a little bit fantastic for public libraries but people esp. young ones do not go to libraries as they used to.This situation should be changed positively.
So the question is :What attracts young people??
Think of a library with lots of colorful puffy cushions on the floor-like a beach!!!
Wouldn �t it be attractive for those???
And for the ones who like peace there may be silent rooms/silence rooms which is fully requied for higher concentartion.
There may be a piano in one room for an another group.
I mean a library with lots of differently designed rooms.
Different rooms for different aims.
If the reading increases in such a way then changes should be welcomed.
The issue in here shouldn �t be cafein in my opinion. -for those who claim addiction-
I agree with Linda.It seems that this cafe is the outer part.
And it is obvious that the only beverage isn �t coffee.
Of course No one can read in such a mess,confusion. But a good break can be motivating for further study!!!!
I am sure SS will concentrate well in the silent parts after a little social chat. |
20 Aug 2009
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sarahgriffin
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For those of you who are very traditional about the use of the library, and who are of the opinion that the students should adapt to the older way of doing things....
I hate to say it, because it sounds rude ... but you know the saying "Move with the times??" 
What I mean is, how many of us teach old school? We all welcome modernisations in teaching - if we didn �t we wouldn �t be part of eslprintables downloading material
So what is wrong with modernisations when it comes to learning.
I know I �m being told that the coffee isn �t the issue, but I think it is. I know some of you are saying that the cafeteria style would be annoying, and if this was the case, I would agree. But, I think the picture shows a �dock � where people can collect a coffee, and then move on to the study area. I would imagine that in a well organised library this �dock � would be very close to the entrance, and at the furthest point from the study desks.
And, again, as I said before... In college life there will be many more things flaunted infront of students to coax them to do one thing or another ... and I for one won �t be adding coffee to that list of vices anytime soon
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20 Aug 2009
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goodnesses
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For being rude, you are really being rude, Sarah.
We all like moving with time and resorting to modern means. Otherwise, we could not keep doing our job with the teens up till now and we could not have this discussion on the NET right now.
Don �t you think that this kind of permissiveness is the reason why the schools are heading towards more and more failure all over the world and especially in the developed countries. The statistics are there. Just google.
EDIT : Moving with the time does not mean bearing noise pollution and disorder and being more and more permissive.
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20 Aug 2009
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Caroline565
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Interesting opinions here. I have never come across a coffee dock in a school library myself. Don �t know whether it is a good or a bad idea. Some might say that we must move with the times. But unfortunately this does not always lead to better things. In fact it can sometimes lead to the very opposite. I remember the Dutch government decided to allow drugs to be available freely in some areas of their country. It was a move to try to break the grip of the drug barons. Some folk believed it to be a very modern and progressive step to take in the beginning but sadly it ended in total disaster. Things got worse. I remember a debate in high school once where one student made a comment that has always stayed with me. ie. "We have become so educated that we have educated ourselves back into ignorance"  . I often think about this and often wonder about it. I think that there may be a certain amount of truth in it. Ah! forgive me for my meanderings..Im just in a strange mood tonight.
Caroline 
PS. Ooops! Nebal you were looking for the brainy responses. Sorry if I let you down  |
20 Aug 2009
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**********
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Quote: For those of you who are very traditional about the use of the library, and who are of the opinion that the students should adapt to the older way of doing things...
Dear Sarah, you are saying here that we (I �m just one, didn �t read the whole thread) are traditional. I see no wrong in being traditional as I see no wrong in being futuristic: I think of myself as being both. Depending on the situation, there are always positive and less positive sides. Just think of your beautiful Dublin. I�d gladly visit Irish Walledwn� Day on next 23rd (traditional, national heritage) as much as I would take joy of taking part in some futuristic event. Preferably both.
You say that:
Quote: I hate to say it, because it sounds... but you know the saying "Move with the times??"
Well if you hate to say it, why do you do, then? Why don �t you read some book, instead, and take pleasure from what you �re doing? Listen to music? Watch a nice film? Go to sleep? Have a cup of tea? Do you think that we are making the best of our time doing things we hate?
Thank you for the advice about moving with the times - someting you hate to say - but I �m not so sure about that suggestion. There are times and times, and sometimes it �s just time to take a break, look at the horizon and think about the trails we �re following and avoid falling on our own traps.
The thread developed nicely, the forum has been sounding quite pleasant for the last few days, we open the site and it looks there are some bright, mature, really interesting people here and that people know the difference when difference matters: a site of highly skilled professionals .
Think it over, relax and discuss ideias, nobody will think of you being rude, as you mentioned, and you certainly don�t want others to think you are. Good night, Sarah. Good night to the other colleagues who are still on-line.
EDIT:
In the school where I have been working for some (???) years now, we´ve been trying to come up with all sorts of strategies to encourage reading in the library. Everybody made suggestions, including students´ and the Parents´ Association: among the final decisions, approved by the Pedagogical Council, food and drink were not included. This kind of decision-making strategy is the real way to succeed.
Idalina Jorge (nikadixon)
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21 Aug 2009
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sarahgriffin
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Goodnesses, I resent the fact that you call me rude because I have a different opinion to you. That is ignorant.
Noise pollution and disorder??? I think you are taking it to the extreme there. However, the problem with this issue is that you are arguing with your school library in mind, and I �m arguing with mine in mind.
Ours is very large, it has three floors, and is actually quite big. It would be very possible for a coffe �dock � to exist at the entrance to the library and not bother a single student who was studying at all.
The library you have in mind, however, is probably alot smaller.
So I think this depends on the library you have in mind, but what I do have to say, is that close to the desks, there is already a huge amount of noise pollution when you take into account
the �clicking � of computers as people type,
the banging of books being returned into the book bins,
the beeping of the scanning machines checking out new books,
the opening and closing of the library doors,
the ringing of the telephones on the librarians desks,
the inevitable talking that librarians and students do if they �re asking questions, borrowing or returning books
the beeping of the machine as you swipe your student card to enter (not in all cases)
and the general mumblings of students entering as then begin to reduce their chit chat to a whisper.
This is not to mention accidental factors, such as coughing, dropping books, mobile phones that were accidentally not switched off etc...
Amidst all of that, I could actually see how a "Hi, could I have a black coffee please" could go unnoticed!!
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21 Aug 2009
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sarahgriffin
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nikadixon - while I accept your suggestions let me just point out that I did not decide to generalise anyone as �traditional �
If you take a look on page 2, you will see posters describing themselves as �old-school � - or, in other words, �traditional �
I �m not angry, nor do I hold any strong views on the matter. I just feel that sometimes people like to go overboard on topics related to education. If nothing was being done to promote reading, people would be giving out about that, now that something is being done (although I don �t believe that is the reason behind the move) people are complaining about that too.
It amazes me that people feel so strongly against it - as it wouldn �t make the blindest bit of difference to me whether or not there was a coffee machine there or not. If I want coffee, I �ll have it, if I dont, I keep walking.
What would worry me more would be the new technology �Kindle �
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Original-Wireless-generation/dp/B000FI73MA
If that kicks in you wont have to worry about the coffee machines, because there will be no libraries to put them in.
But you are right about one thing nikadixon - I don �t want people to think I am rude, and despite how goodnesses took it up I was not demanding that people �move with the times � I was suggesting that sometimes we have to think about the younger generations - after all this is who this idea is aimed at - its in a college library, not a public one.
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21 Aug 2009
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goodnesses
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Dear I don´t resent anything. You said it yourself.
I am giving my opinion about what a "library" should. You are at the limits of arrogance and impoliticness.
"That is ignorant." Ifv this is not being rude and offending, I wonder what would be when you are.
You �d better take idalina �s advice seriously.
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21 Aug 2009
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