The awesome, bright, new entrance to the library is located inside the GSU’s Student Link.

Yesterday, Mugar Library held its Grand Opening Ceremony and ribbon cutting! Alexis Gordon was chosen to cut the ribbon. She’s sporting one of the six hundred t-shirts the library gave away to passing students.

There was also free cake and soda for students to enjoy!

Beginning on September 30th is Banned Books week! I was so glad I stopped by the Banned Books table to see what kinds of books have been banned and I was surprised to see that I luckily have had the chance to read most of the books that were on the table. Libraries across the country, and even in other countries, struggle with the battle to keep books on their shelves as parents, teachers, or politicians attempt to have certain books removed. Mugar realizes it’s important to keep free speech open and knowledge flowing!

It’s a story of two teenagers who deal with the pressures of cancer, love, and time. I don’t believe in spoiling books, but it’s worth reading. Do it, right now, I can wait.

This book touched me the most of all the books I’d read by John Green. I’ve read all but one and they all were enjoyable: there was something bigger to take away, and the protagonists’ usual goofiness appealed to me. TFiOS was different. I felt this terrible ache of attachment to the characters, protagonists and side characters alike, which was new. I was deeper in their psyches and their motivations than I feel I’d been in his previous books.

When I finished it, my eyes were raw from the emotional rollercoaster the 313 page book took me on. Like all good books, I was hesistant to let it end and let my brain forget that with a finite number of pages to get wrapped up in, the end was inevitable and there was no way to work around it. To borrow a phrase from the story, the physical book had this metaphorical resonance to it: it’s with us for a limited time, bound by its finite printed form, just like people can be and just like the experiences we have in our lifetimes. Who knows if John Green had such a meta interpretation of his work.

There’s a certain part that’s stuck with me since finishing, and I’m sure countless other people were affected by this concept quoted below. Hazel speaks:

“I am not a mathematician, but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There’s .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

That just stuck with me as being so beautiful and so true.

I could attribute it to being an artist, needing visual stimuli, but let’s face it, that’s the excuse I give people when they ask why I have eighteen tabs open, all with half-watched episodes or various TV shows, and in the background, an .avi file of a movie I’m only half an hour into. No, I just love movies.

I like them for the same reasons I like books, I guess, except when you read a book you really have to read it – you have to completely focus on the words and how they create a picture in your head, but while your watching a movie or a show, well… most of the work is done for you. It’s awesome. They decided on
the actors and the music and the production design and all you have to do is sit back, relax, and get far too emotionally invested in characters within the first nine minutes of a pilot episode (read: Queer as Folk, I am telling you guys, go watch this show and come back to me with feelings).

The books I like kind of feel like movies or TV, too. If I was going to be really honest, it’s all about escapism. I don’t do non-fiction books for the same reason I don’t watch documentaries. Give me a storyline that takes place in some land where there are dragons (Game of Thrones) or where there’s a horrifying plague that’s killed everyone except some weirdo who calls himself snowman (Oryx and Crake). So I guess the reason I keep watching is to keep finding new places, be it the spaceship Serenity (Firefly, actual required watching, guys) or the inside of the 60 Minutes board room (The Insider, as previously mentioned). How else am I going to get there?

The digitization of library resources has many benefits. Students can easily conduct research from their homes using the many scholastic journals that are available online. Additionally, books on various subjects are easier to find with the help of digital keyword searches.

Yet the migration of data from the physical to the digital does have some drawbacks. According to Associate University Librarian Tom Casserly the migration of data has already proved to be a “huge problem. There are already huge losses.”

Think about all the different storage and media formats that have come and gone in the past few decades. Floppy discs, VHSs, laser-discs, Betamax, even photographic film have all become relics of the past. Sometimes these formats can be digitized but digitization takes time and resources; thus librarians must decide what is worth saving and what will fade away along with outdated formats.

There are several organizations that are working on digitally preserving different books and resources. The Internet Archive (archive.org) has been digitizing books, audio and the like to help make different resources easily accessible online. The Internet Archive has three different backup servers across the world in California, eastern Europe and Egypt. Despite all these backup servers the Internet Archive also keeps physical copies of their materials in storage. People cannot borrow these physical copies from the Internet Archive, but rather they exist in case servers crash. This seems like a good precaution to take because servers can crash, just as physical copies can be destroyed, and data can be lost forever.

Boston University Libraries are definitely moving in a digital direction. BU Libraries provide the Internet Archive with digitized information and resources. Additionally BU Libraries have launched the Digital Initiatives & Open Access which assists the BU Libraries with maintaining digital scholarship. Mugar Library is over 40 years old and filled to the brim with books. According to Casserly Mugar is so saturated with books that it’s “one book in, one book out,” at this point. However the possibilities for data storage and sharing become endless in the digital realm.

With the emergence of tablets and digital readers it will be interested to see if the need for books drops in the next 50 years. Are books destined to become a collector’s commodity like vinyl records? Will libraries in the future be completely book-less? “Books are emblematic of academic content,” says Casserly. Though people may be able to access content online books will most likely remain a part of the academic experience.

Go the BU Libraries Digital Initiatives website to find out more: http://www.bu.edu/dioa/

I wandered around the UCLA campus for about 2 hours and let me tell you it is gorgeous. Similar to BU in the fact that it’s a university in a city, it actually has a campus as opposed to a street that is considered a campus i.e. Commonwealth Avenue. The views were stunning, the buildings were clean and beautiful pieces of architecture (on the outside anyway, the inside of the math building looked just as plain and dreary as our own building), and the amount of open space was incredible. I went into the Ackerman Student Union where I bought an iced coffee at a coffee shop, which was right across from a place where you can play online video games on huge screens for a nominal fee. This union also had a lot more space and different stores than the GSU (except they had a Panda Express thus proving it’s mandatory for all college student unions to have one).

Royce Hall looks similar to Powell Library on the outside

I ended my visit to UCLA by going into, what else, but their major library there. The Powell Library (or College Library as they call it) is the UCLA equivalent to our very own Mugar Library. However, Powell and Mugar are far from equal. On the outside, Powell looks like a beautiful brick sentinel who watches over the students lounging in the courtyard by its entrance with its partner Royce Hall across the way. The stone steps were clean and void of not only smokers but also the dark black spit stains they leave behind. When you enter the building, you enter into a small room reminiscent of a hotel lobby with stairs in front of you and on either side. To my right was a room only UCLA students could get into (using swipe access) and it reminded me of our PAL lounge. This room, called Night Powell, is open when the rest of the library closes at 11:00pm and stays open to allow students to study in a library setting until 2:00am. However, this is the only room that stays open which means the stacks and CLICC (see below) are closed. In addition, there are specific rooms located in Night Powell that are strictly for group study allowing people to talk and discuss without disturbing other students (however, these must be reserved in advance). If instead we took the stairs on our left we would arrive at the College Library Instructional Computing Commons (or CLICC) where you can get help with your computer or use one of the many computers in there to do work. However, if you want to print anything out it will cost you 10 cents per page! (And we complained that we lost some of our print quota while these guys don’t have any). They also do not have double sided printing so a 10-page document would cost a dollar as opposed to 50 cents if they had double sided printing. However, you can use your BruinCard to pay for these print jobs, which is similar to using convenience points. Furthermore, scanning costs UCLA students 16 cents per exposure, which is a free service at Mugar.

After checking out CLICC, I decided to look around the stacks of books. I mostly wandered around the stacks on the first floor trying to find my way around because the library was very confusing and oddly laid out. I had given up with trying to find my way around when I stumbled upon a map. However, unlike the maps in Mugar which are only located by the elevators, these maps were laminated pieces of paper that you could take with you as you wandered around. The only stipulation with this was that you must return this map to its original spot or to one of the many other receptacles that held maps scattered throughout the library. On the second floor of the library was located the reference desk, circulation desk, offices, classrooms, and the main reading room where students can come and study or just read (which is similar to much of Mugar). Also located on this floor was a section dedicated to graphic novels, which this nerd found awesome! That was about all that was located on the second floor. The third floor, which is the top floor, only had a few classrooms in it and that’s it.

So what is my final opinion on Powell (College) Library? Well, it might have some interesting aspects to it that Mugar doesn’t have, and it also might look nicer on the outside and inside than Mugar, however I don’t think the services it provides can match Mugar library. They have far fewer stacks of books located in the library, you have to pay a large amount of money to print something, and there wasn’t as much study space. Overall, I think I would take Mugar over Powell any day. Besides, Powell doesn’t have Recycle Guy!

Suddenly, you see a bookstore up ahead and you can’t help but feel excited. You walk up to the window and look at all the new releases propped upright and displayed like manikins at the Gap. You walk in through the door and hear the bell announcing your entrance to the girl behind the counter. She greets you with a warm smile and asks if you need help finding anything. You smile back stating that you’re just there to browse. Your gaze lingers longer than it should have but you don’t think she noticed.

You proceed to walk through the aisles of the bookstore in no particular order. You are literally browsing. You see a title that catches your eye. You pick it up, read the synopsis, and put it back. Zombies attack the city of Boston who defends the attack with the help of some Martians. Not very interesting. You continue to peruse the stacks while stealthily stealing glances at the girl behind the counter. You swear you catch her looking back at you but you convince yourself otherwise. You pick up another book and read the synopsis. This one sounds interesting. You decide to have a seat to read a little of it. You open the book and thumb through the pages. You can hear the pages rustle as they quickly fly by under your thumb and then snap when they all hit the front cover. The distinct “book” smell wafts up from the pages and tickles your nostrils as if it were an entree at a fancy restaurant. You sit on a recliner and begin to read. The first few pages are decent. Actually, they are thrilling. You start putting your finger behind the page before you finish reading it so that you can turn it faster and not skip a beat. Before you know it, you’re finished with the first chapter. It’s too good to pass up so you decide to buy it.

You take the book up to the girl behind the counter who seems genuinely glad to see that you want to purchase something. Before scanning it, she looks it over a few times and flips through the pages.

“Good choice. This is one of my favorites,” she says smiling at you again as you hand her your card to pay for the book.

“I was reading it in the back. I got so hooked I just had to buy it.”

“I could tell,” she laughs. She smiles again as you look at her. As she hands you the receipt to sign she asks if you want a bag.

“Nah, let’s save a tree. I’ll just carry it. I plan on going to the coffee shop next door to read it anyway.”

She laughs at the tree joke even though you both know it’s really bad. She hands you the book and you give her the signed receipt. However, before you walk away you decide to go for gold.

“Hey, I don’t know when your shift ends but I plan on being at the coffee place for a while and I wouldn’t mind having some company.” You took a long shot; you mentally cross your fingers hoping it pays off.

“My shift actually ends in 15 minutes and I’m dying for some coffee. I could meet you there.” While she is saying this you can see her already warm smile grow slightly.

“Sounds good to me.” As you turn to walk away, you get a good feeling in your stomach. You smile as you open the door to leave. The bell jingles announcing your good fortune.

Now let’s look at this under different circumstances. It’s a Saturday afternoon and you have just finished all of your homework for the weekend like a good student. However, all your friends are still swamped with work and are unable to spend time with you until later. You’re bored out of your mind, looking for something to do. After spending 2 hours on the internet playing Flash games and checking your social media sites, you decide to do something productive. You look over to your right and see the eReader that your parents bought you for Christmas. The flat grey box lies there like some dormant machine waiting for the right time to take over the world. You decide that you want to read a book and reach for the eReader.

As you grab it, you notice how smooth and light the device is. However, you realize these characteristics make the eReader rather sterile and unfriendly. You stare at the glass screen and see your bored reflection staring back at you. You slide the power button on only to realize that the battery has run out and you need to be plugged in in order to use the gadget. You curse under your breath because not only are you now bound to the wall by the cord but also you have to scour your room looking for the charger. You finally find the cord and plug in the eReader.

After the eReader boots up, you decide to go shopping for a new book. You look at a list of books on your eReader, clicking and dragging ad nauseum. A book catches your eye, which was difficult to do because the normally beautiful cover has been changed to a dreary greyscale version that offends more than delights the eyes. You decide to sneak a peek at the book before you decide to buy it. You start reading. The story is very interesting and as you continue to read, you enjoy it more. You keep pressing the button to turn the page but then you have to wait as the eReader turns the page for you. This robs you of the satisfaction of turning the page yourself and makes you wait just that little longer before getting you to the next page forcing you to hold out the last word from the previous page in your head. However, you keep reading and the book gets more exciting and you become completely drawn in by the book. You can’t put it down or even look away. That is until you reach the arbitrary end of the “sneak peak” that you’re allowed to have of the book and you can’t read any more unless you buy it. Now you have to know what happens so you plug in your credit card information, wait a few minutes while the book downloads onto your eReader (your wireless connection isn’t so great), and then begin to read the book alone in an uncomfortable chair bound to the wall of your room.

What’s the moral of the story my fair readers? Physical books are far superior to eReaders. I personally cannot get behind using an eReader because I feel it takes away a lot of the experience of reading a book. I believe the eReader is solely concentrating on the words between the covers and not taking a book for everything its worth. eReaders remove all the personality from reading and change it from a leisure activity into a chore. Reading should not be a chore and that’s why I prefer real books to the eReader.

When I was younger, I had a habit of reading multiple books at once. I think I was a bit lonely and bored, and why just have one friend to hang out with, when you could have a multitude of friends at your beck and call? My mom tells me from time to time that I would fall asleep at night with my books up at the head of the bead, and by the time I would wake up, all the books would be crammed between the footboard, my blanket, and the bed. (I kick and thrash a lot in my sleep.) When I would finish a book, I would march to my parents’ rooms and dramatically slap the book closed, announcing, “I’m finished!” There was such a sense of accomplishment when I could show to my parents the spoils of my conquests — the closed, curled-cover books that I often present to them on their beds, or on their desks. Ha! Another book down, and plenty more, infinitely more books that could fall to my rule. I would carry books in my backpack through out my days at school to read when I found the time and concentration. My mom would have to tell me on school nights not to get too wrapped up in my reading. “Can I just finish the chapter I’m reading and then I’ll start my homework?” I would barter with my mom about how much I could read. She loved that I loved reading, but that love should not cause me to do badly in school.

My love of reading contrasts to my brother’s absence of love. He can read entire books, if he tried, in a day or in hours. But he admits to not enjoy reading all that much, with the exception of the Harry Potter series (one of the best books of all time, in his opinion). He doesn’t really read unless he absolutely wants to or has to. But when he does, woosh! Finished in one fell swoop. I’ve always been a bit jealous because I wanted to be a speed reader. It’s only recently that I have been able to finish books a lot quicker. For the longest time, reading long books was a bit of a challenge for me. I would certainly be able to finish a long book, no problem, but I was a bit self-conscious about my pace. When compared to my brother, I was dragging my feet along the ground as I moved forward in the book, where as he could sprint and be finished in no time, and be able to shout back at me, “Wow, Hannah, you’re the slowest reader ever!” Especially when the Harry Potter books would come out, he would mock me for not finishing it within a day of our receiving it.

Since then, my speed has certainly picked up, but even if I’m really trying (while also not taking too much time away from doing my homework), I still take a few days to finish a book. But I’m okay with that. So what if I’m not plowing through? I’m soaking in every word of the book.  I carefully craft the worlds the books describe so I can enjoy the cinematic display, so I can feel the emotions the author and the characters intend for me to feel. And together, the book and I have created a wonderful friendship, and who wants something so wonderful to end quicker than it has to?

As my time as a student gets shorter and shorter, I realize that I will be able to read more as an adult! Reading! When I want! I want to read on public transportation, when I get home from whatever job I have in the future, maybe even read while on the job, depending on what I do. I look forward to the days when I can just read and read and read and read, all while still having a social life. (I can’t be a complete hermit.) My dad routinely tells me at home that I should get rid of some of the books that I keep on my bookshelf — “it’s too cluttered,” he says. But Dad, this is going to be my personal library where I live on my own! You can’t tell me to get rid of them. When I see pictures of bedroom setups randomly on the internet, where the bookshelves and the bed are intertwined or so close together, I cannot help but feel envious and proclaim that I will live like this. Once again safely nestled between stacks of books.

(The quotation in the title of the post is from R. D. Cumming.)