On 10/22/06, Leigh Meyers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"The Wall Street Journal reports about how colleges are removing
stacks of books from
their libraries and making them more into social centers. The article
suggests that
this new breed of library makes sense because of the availability of online
information. Reading within the article, I get the sense that we are seeing the
effects of the corporatization of the University, where students are seen as
customers..."
No, they're still employees, soon to be the "middle managed" of the
'American Way"[tm].
no, both.
the customer language represents precisely the ethos where i teach,
and it is pernicious in many ways, but the employee part is also key
-- a new student employment program is essentially mandating that
students have some job on campus. you know, to teach them the value of
work. our library has been merged with IT, and the former director of
IT, who is now director of the "[named] center for library and
information technologies" [sic], has opined to me openly about how the
library needs to be more of a social center: "it's a great open space.
why don't kids hang out there more?" he compares it to barnes and
noble, where there are books just lying about and people pick them up
and read them, or where they just come and hang out.
thanks for the heads-up on this article, michael. i'm going to go take
advantage of my academic access to lexi-nexis and grab the whole
thing. :)
j
--
http://brainmortgage.blogspot.com/
