The Daily Collegian

Issue date: 5/10/07 Section: News

Media Credit: umass.edu By May 2006, only seven months after the Learning Commons opened at the W.E.B. DuBois library, 125,356 people entered the library - up from 58,499 last year.

Students hustling with final exams and papers are pouring into the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, where foot traffic has swelled since the creation of the Learning Commons - more than doubling student use in one measure - and library and university staffs are hustling to meet the increased demand.

According to library gate count figures, in fall 2006, 28 percent more students used the library compared to fall 2005. The fall 2006 numbers are 78 percent above those of the fall of 2004, before the Learning Commons opened in October 2005.

By December 2006, 111,826 users visited the library, up from 95,132 in December 2005 and 63,049 in December 2004, according to gate count figures found on the library's website, compiled from a study conducted by consultant Gordon Fretwell.

By May 2006, only seven months after the Learning Commons opened, 125,356 people entered the library - up from 58,499 the previous year.

"In the spring semester, after spring break, [library usage] starts to pick up and will crescendo up until the reading period, right before finals," Alling said. "That is our peak time. Of course during finals, we're very busy. We'll have lines for computers until 1:30 or 2 a.m., at that point." On many evenings, no public computer goes unused. Students are packed in to use the facility's hardware and software, and to consult librarians and technology staff on how to best use the facilities. With parking enforcement suspended most evenings, students are parking along the access paths to Du Bois, giving the sense of a facility filled to capacity.

Renovations to the main floor of the library, now designated the "Learning Commons," seem to have fueled the library's resurgence. The refurbishing of the floor, once lined with wooden desks and chairs, elicited positive reactions from librarians and students.

"The library staff feels [the library] has been reenergized," Alling said. "It was pretty quiet, but people are really coming back now."

In a survey conducted by library administration on March 14, 2006, over 50 percent of respondents said that their overall impression of the renovations was very favorable, while just below 30 percent said their thoughts about the Learning Commons were somewhat favorable.

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