Any City student who walks through the library during a passing period might notice that it can be louder than they would expect. Recently, there have been discussions over what to do to make a change to this environment.

“We know that people need social spaces, but we want the library to be one place where people can go and they can just sit or do their work quietly,” said librarian Daphne Foreman. “We want it to be a place where they can just be without the stresses that other places in the school have. That doesn’t mean everyone has to sit alone. We want it to be a place people want to go.”

The librarians have a few problems with the current way they, and the library, are being treated. 

“We could have more respect from students. We are trying to keep a nice clean library. One of the negatives is people constantly are leaving trash. Nobody seems to know how to push their chairs back in,” Sandy Rackis, another City High librarian said. “We are constantly having to, during each class, go around and push all the chairs back in. To have to do that, it’s kind of degrading.”

However, the reason the librarians want to decrease the number of students in the library is more than just the level of noise or the trash.

“We’re trying to help kids. My favorite thing to do is to help a student looking for a book find a book that is great. It’s my job to help kids find books. I don’t want to babysit. We’re just looking at it like, ‘Let’s take care of our library,’” explained Rackis. “We still want the library to be warm and inviting, we want people to want to come to the library, but for the right reasons, not just being overly loud and rambunctious.”

The librarians have been working with hall monitor Chip Hardesty and the student senate to brainstorm possible modifications to be made to either the library or to the commons.

“Chip, who works with the student senate has been meeting with them. They are proposing possibly making some enhancements of the commons, which is technically where the social people are supposed to go socialize,” said Rackis. “This is from doing a survey with those kids: they don’t want to be [in the commons]; it has very poor lighting. It’s not warm or inviting, whereas in the library we have more warm and inviting chairs.”Student Senate is working to improve the library and make it a more comfortable place, but also a place where students can study and do homework.

“City High’s library is much more progressive than the old stereotype of a quiet library. Obviously, we’re far beyond that. We want it to be vibrant and pleasant and welcoming, but also restful. You know, like a respite from the busy-ness from the rest of the day,” said Foreman.