Tuesday, June 5, 2007

So many similes, so little time

It appears that Augusta State University is taking the novel approach of adding a game room to its Reese library. You know, like with pool tables and video games. Maybe one of those crane-thingies where you drop in a dollar and try to liberate Sponge Bob from his fluffy mass-grave with a grappling hook. This is a really bad. Libraries, and especially college libraries are scholarly places, for activities like research, reading and studying. And picking up chicks. OK, so that's not so scholarly, but give me a minute and I could probably convince you it is. Something like anything in the guise of research.

But I digress. Sarah Miller wrote recently in the LA Times about how the austerity is gone from libraries, and I tend to agree. She said "These days, libraries sound a lot less like libraries and a lot more like the line for the funnel cake booth at a county fair." And she's right. Just try concentrating for 5 minutes straight at any library today. I dare ya.

Libraries aren't what they used to be. They're less about research and more about socializing, and that's too bad. Well, except for the picking-up-chicks thing, but hey, I'm willing to bend a little. This new recreational center model that ASU is proposing just furthers it. I mean, a game room in a library is like a bacteria-ridden plot of dirt in an operating room. "You know what this surgical suite needs? A mud pit!" It's like a Big Mac stand at a playground, or Sasquatch on the beach.

It's like Stephen King books in a library.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good words.