Dear Readers,
This may surprise you.
Even if you’ve read Towerview loyally since last July and noticed our unconscious, yet salient motif, there are still a few things we have not told you about libraries. You read stories of the Perkins staff in October, learned some facts about Duke’s collections in February, and this month, you’ll meet patrons of the Durham County Library. We wondered why libraries had such prominence in our subsconsious this year. True, we credit ourselves as the originators of only one library piece (the graphic of statistics in our February issue), but the others we extracted, from a list of enthusasitcally articulated pitches by talented writers at budget meetings; the library ideas were repeatedly our favorites. Why did these topics resonate with us so? A simple answer is that as Duke undergraduates, we spend a significant amount of time typing away in Perkins or Lilly and that stories that operate in these spaces appeal to us because they are familiar like apples or mud.
In our conscious thoughts, though, we do not find these libraries so interesting, certainly not in comparison to “hipsters-in-the-woods” towns like Saxapahaw, N.C., the marshes of the Outer Banks, an eclectic art collection made of “junk” in Greensboro or any other location to which we have traveled during issue one to issue seven. As we put this issue—our seventh and our last—together, our staff discussed what we consciously think of libraries:
1 They should have more natural lighting.
2 They are lonely.
3 When I actually need a book, I like it. Sometimes I sit on the floor in its row and read it.
4 They’re quiet.
5 Thinking you’re the loud one, that’s the worst (the hiss your computer makes when you open it)
6 You could conceivably live in one.
Only these thoughts led to more questions about libraries.
What if you did try to live in one? Could one of us do that and write a story about it? Where would you sleep? Who would be around at night? Sure, we’ve pulled all-nighters in the Gothic Reading Room, but that was working time—we spent it all watching our laptop screens. If you wandered instead, you’d probably walk in on some couple having sex in the stacks (one of our editors mentions it’s happened to her—it was really awkward). How many people have actually had sex in the stacks (we won’t confess our own answers in print)? Which students spend the most time at the library? Are there morning studiers, afternoon studiers and night studiers or does everyone just study at night?
This thought experiment has changed our minds. We ask our successors, Matthew Chase and Sonia Havele, to disregard any earlier advice we gave them about not over-exhausting storylines and instead, please answer more questions about libraries for our readership.
Goodbye readers, we have enjoyed these seven issues with you.
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