By Lily Galapon, Guest Contributor
At almost any other library, one would imagine the academic environment as a reserved intellectual harbor, a collective haven for students to hone in on their work and reach an optimal state of focus. In nearly every other circumstance, libraries are equated to silent reservoirs of studying, enforced by a constant need to keep one’s voice down. From the moment one usually walks through the door comes a shift in the atmosphere, of conversations softening, the mind preparing to sharpen for the day’s load of assignments. However, at the Borden Mace Library, many NCSSM students experience quite the opposite phenomenon.
Especially at the beginning of the year, many members of the junior population have fallen victim to finding the school’s arguably loudest landscape, expecting to find a familiar space for concentration. Of all places, the scene at the Borden Mace library has ironically turned more social than studious. But how did this come to be?
Through a spatial perspective, the NCSSM website states how “the Learning Commons design of our Library creates a warm environment for interaction, inspiration, and creativity with spaces designed specifically for individuals and groups,” emphasizing the school’s importance for students to foster relationships with one another to academically succeed. The library has incorporated many openly-spaced design elements for groups of students to work together in, whether that be the multiple yellow study rooms built along the left wall of the space, or the many circular tables, some of which are embedded within the not-so-soundproof glass lounges. By incorporating friendly architectural designs to bring people together, Borden Mace has allowed positive community building to prosper–though, often with its downsides.
Because the library has majorly devoted the working space for groups of people, a lot of students are naturally inclined to hang out with their friends, leading to an avoidance of accomplishing the objective at hand: Their assignments. As one junior complains how “all of my friends are there and I can’t lock in…there’s no quiet rule”, the social restrictions of the library–or lack thereof, have allowed noise levels to get extremely high without consequences. This has contributed to the development of an unbounded gregarious workspace with little to no “work” getting done. One senior notes how “a library is a social place, not a study place”, highlighting the reality for many other students how the design features of Borden Mace have strayed far from its original purpose.
However, the bustling scene at the library is not inherently bad for those who need to finish their work. One student states, “The library is a place to socialize and interact, but it has areas where you can lock in, like the little cubbies at the sides and the quiet rooms”, showing how while much of the area has been mapped out for groups of people to collaborate (or socialize), there are still individualistic spaces for students to meaningfully their work–one just has to make sure to not overlook them, and create real action in finding a spot with less social distractions.
While strife with socialization with its people-friendly architectural features, the Borden Mace Library has not necessarily become a doomed place for studying. The flexible grounds for academic collaboration do not automatically lead to collective loss of concentration among students, but could instead allow the enhancement of it as long as one takes initiative in how to approach their work, and where to mark the line between studying and socializing.
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