"This isn't about going into the coffee shop business and abandoning the library. There are people who really lament this change."

"But if we hadn't done it, we would have lost the users, the students."

Says Ken Frazier, the University of Wisconsin-Madison director of libraries.

He's talking about the College Library, in Helen C. White Hall.

College Library has long been considered a social space on campus, and librarians appear to be encouraging fraternization.

Meanwhile, there are only about 100 paper journals and magazines left in the library, where previously there were a thousand. Most of them are less academic and more focused on popular culture or current events, such as Bicycling or Time. Scholarly journals are still available, but they're housed at the more traditional Memorial Library or in digital form....

With the changes came more room for study and gathering spaces....

Are you a library traditionalists? Do you want everybody to shush?

You can still check out a book. Like this:


(Photo by pamela-o.)

ADDED: Libraries should be used for socializing. Books are sexually stimulating:

PAM: Oh, hi! I'm Pam. You must be Kramer. [Kramer is smitten with Pam and grins goofily.] Jerry's told me a lot about you. [Kramer continues grinning.] Well, I'm supposed to meet Jerry, it's my day off. I work in a bookstore.

KRAMER (mouths the words): Books. [Knocks over a bowl of fruit on the counter.]

...

KRAMER: She works in a book shop. Her name is Pam.

NEWMAN: "Pam." I don't know the woman, but she sounds quite fetching.

KRAMER: I can't even speak in front of her. [Sits down on the couch.]

NEWMAN: Jerry! What could she possibly see in Jerry? [Walks in front of Kramer and trips over his feet.]

KRAMER: She has delicate beauty.

NEWMAN: Jerry wouldn't know delicate beauty if it bludgeoned him over the head.

...

NEWMAN: With your looks and my words, we'll have built the perfect beast.

PAM: Oh, hi! Kramer.

NEWMAN (whispers through the bookcase): Hi. How are you?

KRAMER: Hi. How are you?

PAM: I'm great.

NEWMAN: I too am well.

KRAMER: I too am well.

NEWMAN: Do I smell Pantene?

KRAMER: Do I smell?

NEWMAN: Pantene!

KRAMER: Uh, Pantene.

PAM: Oh, my shampoo. Yeah, it is Pantene, I got a free sample in with my junk mail.

KRAMER (talks rapidly in an attempt to keep up with Newman): Well, there really is no junk-mail...well, everybody wants to get a check or a birthday card, but...

NEWMAN (frantic): ...it takes just as much man-power to deliver it as their precious little greeting cards...

KRAMER: Newman! [Elbows him through the books. Newman falls over.]

PAM: What?

KRAMER: Uh, human. It's...human to be moved by a fragrance.

PAM: That's so true.

KRAMER: Her bouquet cleaved his hardened...

NEWMAN: Shell.

KRAMER: ...shell. And fondled his muscled heart. He embibed her glistening spell...just before the other shoe...fell.

PAM: Kramer, that is so lovely.

KRAMER: It's by an unknown 20th-century poet.

PAM: Oh, what's his name?

KRAMER: Newman. [On the other side of the bookcase, Newman preens proudly.]

I hope you new college kids have many wonderful conversations through bookcases... or in IMs... or wherever...