Today’s library visit brought me to the Joint-Use Library (JUL) in Virginia Beach, VA.
This library is a partnership between Tidewater Community College (TCC) and the City of Virginia Beach. Both TCC students and residents of Virginia Beach (VB) can benefit from this library. The website gives links to the VB public library website as well as the main library website for TCC. Databases for both libraries are available on the website as well as policies, hours, and making reservations for a study room at the JUL. Under the menu item “Need Help”, you are able to click and access the listing of staff members and ways to reach them. There is an area to “Ask a Librarian” that I thought would be helpful if the website didn’t help answer a question.
Because of it being both a public and an academic library, I will be using this library as a focus on my observation of an academic library.
The library is located on the Virginia Beach campus of TCC. It is a two-story building with modern design. There is handicap parking near the entrance with a side parking lot. Across the street from the library is more parking, which is also campus parking but I didn’t see any signs about not parking in the campus parking lot. The side parking lot connected to the library was pretty small, so parking on the campus lot is probably not frowned upon near the library.
The first floor is dedicated to the public collections, including a children’s and youth area. It also has a few meeting rooms and a computer area. Upstairs, on the second floor, is the academic library (which will be my main focus). Once you go up the stairs, or use the elevator to the second floor, there are study rooms, rooms used for classes to meet in, a circulation desk, an area for a 3-D printer, a computer lab section, and the bookshelves with the academic collection. It is a very spacious library. There are many tables and chairs for patrons to use as well as comfy chairs to sit in. It has a modern look and seemed clean and welcoming. There is ample natural light from the big windows of the second floor as well as fluorescent lighting. I don’t know if it is because of COVID, but many tables didn’t have chairs with them. Whether it was for spacing purposes or they used the chairs in other parts of the library, I thought with lack of chairs at tables it made it easy access for those in wheelchairs! 🙂
I went on a Saturday morning, so not many people were in the library. The several people that I saw were either in a study room or working at a table. Most everyone that was there had backpacks, so I assumed they were students. I didn’t feel like I was unwelcomed on the second floor just because I wasn’t a student at TCC. I was able to walk around and observe without any trouble. The librarians/circulation desk staff that I saw included two white males, four African-American women, and one white female. Several staff members were sitting at the circulation desks (both downstairs and upstairs) but I did see a staff member shelving some books. I was greeted by the white female when I first walked in the library (you had to sign in and sanitize your hands). She had a bun for her hairstyle! It made me chuckle at the stereotype about white women and their bun-wearing hair (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 315). But she was very nice and didn’t shush me. J She was welcoming and wanted to know if I had ever been to the JUL before. I told her no and she explained to me the difference between the first and second floor and told me I was welcome to go anywhere! One didn’t need a TCC card to check out books. Having a public library card was all you needed for both the academic section and public section of the library.
The academic section of the library uses the Library of Congress (LOC) classification system (downstairs in the public library area, the Dewey Decimal System (DDS) is used). I thought it was unique to have two types of classifications in one library. Upstairs, the LOC was labeled on the bookshelves but there was a guide to help you find the subject or materials that you were looking for. According to Rubin & Rubin (2020), it’s a standard for academic libraries to use the LOC because it accommodates modern subjects (p. 340). I can see why this library would use guides to help label shelves because 95% of all U.S. public libraries are classified with the DDS (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 339) and it is what most people are familiar with. I’m thankful for the extra help with the LOC classifications because it is something I also am not too familiar with.
I have really never been exposed to an academic library before and it was interesting to see some academic journals bound in big almanac-looking books, with several years bound in one collected book. There was also a section of law books of municipal laws of Virginia Beach.
I noticed a little display with materials for English as a Second Language (ESL). I thought this was a unique and welcoming way to help those wanting to learn the English language. It was a display that had different books at different levels of reading difficulties for people to check out. There was also audio material to check out on that display as well.
Overall, I was very impressed by the overall design of the library and the materials in the library. It would be an excellent environment to do both research in and to be able to study in. If you get the chance to be in VB, I would recommend you checking out this unique collaboration between a public and academic library!
Reference
Rubin, R. E., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information sciences (5th ed.).
ALA Neal-Schuman.
Hi Lisa! What an interesting setup for this library. I am curious now to see it in person. I think that it is great that the public can check out the academic titles for their own use if they have a public library card. I know many academic libraries require patrons who are not students or faculty to buy a subscription or account with the library in order for those patrons to check out materials. I would be curious to know if there is a way they can track how many members of the public have checked out the academic materials? This seems like a great way to foster an interest in knowledge within the community.
That would be something interesting to track. To be able to see how many “non-academic” people who are interesting in those types of books. If you can visit, I would recommend it!
Hello Lisa!
I thought that it was great that one didn’t need a TCC card to check out books and just by having a public library card you were good for BOTH the academic and public sections of the library. I really like how well-lit the library is with white fluorescent lights. It seemed like the second floor was more for academic purposes. I was wondering if there was a section where it mentioned different noise levels?
I didn’t see any signs about noise levels. Being that the library is a totally separate building and a parking lot away from the campus, maybe they don’t have to regulate the noise level like they would if the building was in the heart of the campus.
Lisa, it’s so neat to read about this ‘hybrid’ academic and public library and to know that users can benefit from both sections of the library with just a library card. What a unique experience for its patrons. I also can’t help but think about how much extra attention staff needs to pay to the collection given there are two different types of classification in the building! It sounds like you had a great visit.