A bookshelf in Hornbake Library allows students to take or leave books, magazines and multimedia materials as they please.
Students spend hours holed up in McKeldin Library, cramming for exams and wrapping up assignments. Hornbake Library, however — home of the university’s special collections — doesn’t connote the same reputation.
Hornbake’s employees are attempting to draw more students to the library, through the use of social media, exhibits and a new “free library” bookshelf. Officials hope the informal take-a-book, leave-a-book system will help the library seem more accessible.
“People see it as an ivory tower where it’s for special researchers and professionals and people who know what they’re doing,” said Kate Long, a graduate assistant in the library’s collection management and special collections department. “Because we are a university library, our audience, first and foremost, should be students.”
Because Hornbake’s holdings consist primarily of mixed media, archives and other special collections, they offer very few opportunities for visitors to browse and interact with the library’s collections. Most items have to be requested before they are brought out from the stacks, and many archival materials can only be used inside the Special Collections Reading Room, where they are protected by extra security.
Long said many people enter Hornbake, “…basically saying, ‘Where are the books?’”
In an attempt to cultivate a warm, welcoming environment to beckon students to read and hang out in Hornbake, the outreach team turned a long-empty space in the lobby into a free take-a-book, leave-a-book library. The shelves have been stocked with books and free buttons, adorned with Testudos and drawings of items from the archives, since February.
“We want it to be more of a comfortable area for students. Students are always in here anyway, so why not make something accessible for them to use and enjoy?” said Morgan Adle, a member of the library’s instruction and outreach team.
Students can walk into the library, choose a book or other item from the shelves, and either take it home or sit down in the lobby to read for a while. Students can also leave any type of media for someone else to find and use later on. The outreach team curates the shelves, making sure they are stocked and ready for students to use.
“We always talked about how it would be nice for students to actually see this as a reading area where you can come and hang out and not just do homework, but read for pleasure,” Long said.
Adle said Hornbake staff members donated many of the first books. It also includes books from the National Trust Library and other collecting areas in Hornbake and materials that don’t meet Hornbake’s collection policies; Adle said staff members were excited to have “a place for these ridiculous amounts of duplicate books we get.”
The bookshelf includes works of fiction and nonfiction that cover a variety of topics. Long said she is waiting to see when her favorite book on the shelves, a copy of Jane Slayre, will find a new home. And although the bookshelf will serve as a way to find an entertaining novel for students to enjoy, it can also be a way to pass on textbooks to other students.
“If you can’t get money back for your book or a decent amount, then at least there’s somewhere to drop it,” Long said. “People have come here asking, ‘Where can I donate a book?’”
Freshman cell biology and genetics major Darshan Mahabare said he would use Hornbake’s free library, though he questioned the relevance of print materials.
“I don’t think anyone really checks out books these days,” he said. “I think it’s a lot more online.”
Matthew Waren, a senior chemistry and environmental science major, said he planned to go out of his way to visit the free library.
“E-books are more convenient, but if I know that there’s a take-a-book leave-a-book, I’d definitely use it,” he said.
