A plaque that reads, “Ask a Librarian Live” is the only indicator that the middle aged person in the Lang Café between 11:30 to 1:30 every Tuesday and Wednesday since February 15 is actually a librarian from Fogelman, the New School’s Humanities and Social Sciences library, there to field students’ questions.
Lang Academic Advising first sent out email notifications in November and then again this month to announce the return of “Ask a Librarian Live” sessions in the Lang Café, which began in the fall as a response to Fogelman’s neglect since being moved to Arnold Hall two years ago until 65 5th Avenue is renovated.
“We’re spread throughout the building so it’s kind of hard to have an identity as a library here,” said Fogelman librarian Paul Abruzzo.
The Fogelman librarians got the idea to reach out to students like other colleges such as Penn State where librarians are making themselves available in areas that students already frequent. The Fogelman librarians also hold sessions for NSSR students at 6 16th Street and are planning to expand to the new student center unveiled last month.
They sat down with Lang administrators to establish a time slot that would maximize student traffic.
“We’re trying to reach as many students as possible in the space where they gather or hang out” Fogelman librarian Brita Servaes said.
Before 2009 when the New School demolished 65 5th Avenue and began construction on a new student center, Fogelman was situated in the building’s “lower level,” which Abruzzo explained was just a euphemism for basement.
“It wasn’t a great space, but it was big enough to house most of the collection and it was sort of the identifiable library, people knew where it was,” explained Fogelman’s Director John Aubrey.
He attributes part of this to a lesser flow of students and faculty in Arnold Hall, which does not host as many offices and class rooms for the New School for Social Research as 65 5th Avenue did.
Since the move, however, much of the collection has been moved off site and what remains available is spread out between three floors of Arnold Hall. The first floor hosts the circulation desk and the reference room where one of the three librarians is available 9:00 to 6:00 on weekdays and 11:00 to 4:00 on Saturday. After hours, students can ask questions through an email service called “Ask-A-Librarian.”
The mezzanine hosts Fogelman’s offices and several stacks tucked away in a corridor that’s easy to miss. The rest of the books reside on the oft joked about shelves lining the third floor computer lab frequented mostly for its printers.
“People have a hard time finding the space,” said Servaes.
Lang sophomore Mia Bruner expressed confusion with the online “Ask-A-Librarian” service and also mentioned she dislikes the Fogelman stacks on the mezzanine floor since books fall due to the poor design of the moving shelves.
Although “Ask A Librarian” is partially designed to reach out to students while Fogelman is in its temporary location before moving back to 65 5th Avenue once it’s remodeled, reaching out to students and faculty is a priority for the librarians.
“It’s something that we probably will continue even after we have the new space. It makes sense to be where the users are, providing it works,” Aubrey said. “It’s sort of an experiment.”
Bruner seemed positive about the idea of “Ask A Librarian Live” but also wondered how the sessions will be used.
“I don’t know how many questions people have about the library.”
The librarians also acknowledged the lack of student involvement.
“Sometimes nobody will come up [to “Ask A Librarian Live”], sometimes you spend an hour there and nobody has any questions. But that happens at the reference desk anyway,” Aubrey said.
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