Opinion: No one uses the library for books

The library isn’t being used to access books, making Student Government’s push for extended hours unnecessary.

Photo by Mohammed F. Emran

Gregory Cox, Managing Editor

Florida Atlantic’s libraries are filled with over a million different books, journals, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes and microforms. But if you look through any of the building’s five floors and in the computer labs, the chance of finding students with any of those things in front of them is slim to none.

The majority of people in the library could be doing whatever they’re doing anywhere else.

Yet Student Body President Kathryn Edmunds wants to have the library hours on the Boca Raton campus extended. By fall of 2016, she hopes the library will be open 24 hours a day, from Sunday through Thursday.

Most people just try to fool themselves by saying they’re studying because they’re in a library. In reality, you can see people scrolling through photos of someone else’s Ultra Music Festival experience, or their friend’s latest beach picture, which looks the same as the one she posted four days ago.

So you already have people who are barely studying in the library during the day, but they’ll be more productive at 4 a.m. right?

Nope.

The only people in there at that time will be those hammering away at the books for eight hours straight, trying to cram every piece of information into their brain like people in Japan trying to get onto a train. But don’t take my word for it, psychology professor Alan Kersten already said last-minute studying doesn’t help. Cramming holds information in your short term memory and come test time, short term memory isn’t as valuable.

“Short-term memory doesn’t store,” said Kersten to the University Press in fall of 2015. “Long-term is where you want [information], it’s where you retrieve it during the test [and] seems to be organized by meaning.”

On top of encouraging all-nighters, the type of studying that is associated with an all-night library can lead to some other ugly side effects, like decreased mental function and poor eating habits, according to Seattle Pi, a newspaper based in Washington.

We already live in Florida, where flakka, cocaine and club drugs are rampant. We don’t need sleep-deprived students looking like the rest of South Florida’s population that’s coming down from a drug-fueled bender.

Aside from encouraging unhealthy habits, what Student Government isn’t so quick to talk about is that this plan will cost roughly $40,000, according to Felix Hartmann, the Student Government treasurer.

Meanwhile, there’s the Hillel Jewish Life Center, a 24-hour study center next door, right next to the Breezeway and behind the Chik-fil-A. It’s open seven days a week and has computers, private study rooms and desks for students to use.

This means the school already has a center that eliminates any need for an extension of library hours.

But that’s right. I forgot how efficient FAU is with its money, like when it waters sidewalks right after it rains.

On top of that, there are people who might not use the library for its intended purpose, the ones with ulterior motives.

College students are like rabbits when it comes to sex, and will try to have it anywhere and everywhere they’re not supposed to. I’ve heard of three separate friends who wanted to fornicate in between the shelves.

But I won’t divulge if that ever really happened or not.

FAU doesn’t need extended library hours. I’d rather see that money put toward scholarships or, well, just about anything else.

Photo by Andrew Fraieli
Photo by Andrew Fraieli

Gregory Cox is the managing editor of the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email [email protected] or tweet him @gregcox92.