When research projects go awry
By: Taylor Menke
-Staff Writer-
Timothy Healy, former President of the New York Public Library once said, “To those with ears to hear, libraries are really very noisy places. On their shelves we hear the captured voices of the centuries-old conversation that makes up our civilization.”
Since their genesis millennia ago, libraries have been the valued epicenters of human knowledge and thought. Every book, audiotape, magazine or newspaper contains the preserved thoughts, opinions and findings of people whose mortality would otherwise cause the information to be lost. Libraries have been the source of both great and small things — when the Library of Alexandria burned down so did much of the knowledge of the ancient world; when college students need to write a paper on Mark Twain or the evolution of the writing utensil their main source is typically a library.
Unfortunately, many people have either forgotten or have never learned how to use a library. The Dewey decimal system, call numbers and complex material seem to have become obsolete in the day of online search utilities or Wikipedia. But the library is not dead, and the STLCC-Meramec campus library is no exception.
Meramec’s library offers many services and features. It is part of the MOBIUS system, which allows students to request materials from other libraries statewide that are not part of the Meramec collection. The library contains audiobooks, tapes, DVDs, periodicals and even e-books — showing that the library is in fact a flexible medium of information. Meramec students, alumni and faculty also have access to films on demand — simply login with your Blackboard username and password and thousands of digital video resources are at your fingertips.
The library at Meramec provides other services as well. If you have a question, you can call, e-mail or chat with a member of the library staff. On the library’s webpage is a list recent acquisitions that can be browsed. Their website offers research assistance, and they can schedule library literacy classes with campus instructors. In addition , the library hosts many educational events on the campus.
