One interview, a few questions & a new idea

A further look into how students are using the library ‘these days’.

For this post, I interviewed Ilana who’s a senior at UMBC and regularly visits UMBC’s library. The goal of the interview was to get an idea of how an ‘average’ student understands or imagines the library and then how that understanding translates into her use of the library. The questions focused on her and what she does/doesn’t use the library for and about the relationships she forms while using the library as a learning space. The interview took place in an on-campus apartment community center.

Interview Transcribed:

Interview Part 1

Me: So how do you imagine the library?

Ilana: Um I see the library as a place for both learning and socializing and — you know - collaborating with others, which is usually the best way to study.

Me: Um how often do you go to the library?

Ilana: I usually go to the library like two or three times during the week to study with friends then on the weekends I’ll go by myself for like a couple hours.

Me: So when you go there do you use your own computer or the computers there?

Ilana: Well I always bring my laptop um but sometimes the school computers have programs that I don’t have, so for my linear algebra class I used it a lot, the — um — the dells.

Me: What’s your major?

Ilana: Biology.

Me: And being a bio major how many research papers have you had to write — that needed sources?

Ilana: Umm probably only two or three.

Me: Have you ever used the Reference Librarians?

Ilana: Um I don’t think so

Me: Do you know what the Reference Librarians are for?

Ilana: I mean I’m getting a pretty good idea [laughs] but uh I’ve never actually gone through that process.

Me: So when you would write a paper for a class, how did you get sources for the class?

Ilana: You know just uh did the Google [laughs] and um I mean you know — I know how to like cite based on what I get from an article.

Me: Did you ever use the library sources online — the library database, for journals?

Ilana: I think that they made me in English 100 to get used to it [laughs] but that was the only time.

Interview Part 2

Me: So you usually go to the library with your friends, how close are you to the friends that you go with?

Ilana: Um I would say that there’s always like one person in the group I’m with I’m really close to and then the others are probably acquaintances from that class I might know through that person.

Me: When you’re going to the library to study with the people you come with, do you talk while you’re there? Or are you quiet? Like — are you getting stuff done?

Ilana: Oh yeah we get — you know — we get stuff done but there’s certainly an amount of goofing around that occurs.

Me: Do you think going to the library to study with people makes you closer to those people?

Ilana: Um yeah I mean I think studying together you bond, and you know — I mean I’m interested in the stuff that I’m learning so meeting other people who are interested in it and talking about it — I get closer to them, yeah.

[End Interview].

My Analysis and Conclusions:

I think this interview really kickstarted my research for this project. What struck me about interviewing Ilana was that she was a Biology major who goes to the library often, but rarely needs the library as anything more than a space to study with her friends or by herself. I asked about Ilana’s major because I wanted to see if it was relatable to how she uses the library. It seems that as a biology major she has to study a lot, but her classes don’t require her to write research papers, meaning she has little need for the library’s resources — besides the programs on the computers.

According to US News the percentage of UMBC students who graduated in 2015 majored in “Biological and Biomedical Sciences,16%, Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services,15%, Psychology, 13%, Social Sciences,13%, [and] Engineering, 7%” (U.S. News). This information suggests that a majority of UMBC students major in a science and/or tech related fields.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the popularity of tech and science related majors at UMBC related to how the library is/isn’t used, or if there are still similarities between how the students use the library, despite their major. I plan on looking into this idea by interviewing students from each of the majors listed above and asking about their use of the library and it’s resources.

One quote that stood out to me in Lila Ellen Gray’s Fado Resounding: Affective Politics and Urban Life was when she stated “Monumentalization demands the illusion of fixity, the erasure of process” (Gray, 181). In this quote, Gray was describing how Amalia’s home was made into a museum after her death and how “nothing has changed” because her ‘life’ was preserved (181). This quote also reminded me of the appearance of the library and it’s displays millions of books even if they aren’t used that often. UMBC’s library has six floors filled with stacks upon stacks of books. Many of these books haven’t been checked out or even touched in years — evident from the layer of dust that covers them. Even though we refer to today as the ‘digital age’ and a significant amount of students resort to the internet instead of print for sources, I think a library really isn’t a library without the books. I like to study in the library because I find that being around books, or physical objects that preserve knowledge, make me feel more attuned to learning myself — even if it’s not from the books on the shelf and I’m actually staring at a computer screen.