Lamonsters and Little Einsteins

It’s Halloween, which means it’s time for scary things like counting down the days until reading period begins—about 34!—or white people making our cultures uncool or job applications going unanswered. BUT! If you want a real scare, I have just the thing, just the trip. I double-dog-dare you to go to Lamont tonight, or any night, after about 10 p.m. Go there not to study your books, but the people sitting all around you. It’s going to be hair-raising, eye-opening, trust me.

What won’t you see? Not the stereotypical shushing librarian, that I guarantee. Lamont Café is loud, and that’s ok: It’s a café intended to provide necessary space for meetings, study groups, office hours, and tutoring. But the policy of the café is not the policy of the whole of Lamont: There are levels of quiet in Lamont. The third floor Donatelli Reading Room is reserved for quietest study, nearly silent study. The second floor is less quiet than the third; and the first floor isn’t quiet at all, with the noise of the main doors, the café, and the circulation desk precluding even a pretense of reading in silence. The Collaborative Learning Space on level B and the Larsen Room in fact invite students to talk and to collaborate. Though not to “collaborate.” Yet you will find whispering and conversation on level 3, study groups outside of group areas, and so on.

What will you see? Very little studying, for one thing; taking a walk to the bathroom or hunting for a study carrel, you’ll likely glimpse many people’s laptop screens opened to YouTube, Hulu, or naked women (who aren’t Miley Cyrus). Despite being in a public place, people will freely remove their shoes, their socks. People leave behind belongings to occupy “their" spots. Boundary issues, hoarding, minimal hygiene—we’re only a step away from our own TLC reality show.

Perhaps the worst are the babies. Yes, there are babies in Lamont. I’ve brought this up to many friends. Typical reactions: Michael, you are being too harsh; Michael, it is hard to be a mother and a student; Michael, you will make people uncomfortable and angry by mentioning this. But once I explain that I see infants in Lamont at 10 p.m., 11 p.m., and past midnight, people take my side.

It’s bad for a baby to be kept awake, in the library, at such ungodly hours. Infants and toddlers need plenty of sleep, and sleep on a regular schedule, for their healthy development. It simply isn’t good for them to be out of their cribs because of schoolwork. The health of children—of your child—should come before that paper, email, or lab report. By all means, let graduate student parents—mothers and fathers—lean in and strive for both family and excellence in their chosen fields. But, by all means, don’t demand the right to bring your crying, screaming, potentially traumatized baby to the PCs on level B at 1 a.m.—when other students would like to study normally in the library they also share with you.

Harvard, though, needs to change to make this happen. Reading the Child Care@Harvard webpage, I was horrified to read, “affiliation with Harvard University does not guarantee admission to Harvard-affiliated child-care centers.” If Harvard is serious about “lean in” strategies, childcare needs to be available for every graduate (or undergraduate student) and for every schedule, and for every budget. Many undergrads would love the chance to make extra cash by babysitting: therefore, resources like the Watch portal should be advertised more. Perhaps even a corps of babysitters could be established as an avenue for student on-campus employment. No one should have to be in the position that their only option is to bring their child into Lamont late at night. I know it’s not done maliciously, but it is done inconsiderately.

We all act inconsiderately at times, but this tendency is amplified in the libraries because we have lost touch with the notion of shared public space. We fail to see that our conduct affects the productivity of others around us. Public courtesy in Lamont has declined so that most people make every effort to avoid study there. During the Opening Days tours and the required library Expos 20 sections, library staff might have to teach both research skills and library etiquette.

The end of the age of print brings new challenges, but it does not eliminate the importance of the library as a physical space. In explaining the logic of the capital campaign, Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Michael D. Smith said, "place still matters, especially this unique place. We believe in the power of the chance meetings that occur every day across this campus." I agree that place is important; it is why I am worried for Harvard’s future based on the state of its libraries, their institutional culture, and the norms of use established by patrons without regard to building a shared space, not just hundreds of isolated scholars in the same room.

Nothing represents “our heritage and our future” more than our libraries. This Halloween, I ask all Lamonsters, all alumni, all administrators to consider how to renew our library system in its body and soul. It’s time the libraries receive our respect and consideration. This involves changing priorities—Harvard needs to provide comprehensive childcare, because Lamont is not equipped for patrons and their infant children. It is hard enough to manage as it is.

Michael Thorbjørn Feehly ’14 is a History and Scandinavian studies concentrator in Mather House. His column appears on alternate Thursdays.