This library is a partnership between Tidewater Community College (TCC) and the City of Virginia Beach.\u00a0 Both TCC students and residents of Virginia Beach (VB) can benefit from this library.\u00a0 The website gives links to the VB public library website as well as the main library website for TCC.\u00a0 Databases for both libraries are available on the website as well as policies, hours, and making reservations for a study room at the JUL.\u00a0 Under the menu item \u201cNeed Help\u201d, you are able to click and access the listing of staff members and ways to reach them.\u00a0 There is an area to \u201cAsk a Librarian\u201d that I thought would be helpful if the website didn\u2019t help answer a question.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The library is located on the Virginia Beach campus of TCC.\u00a0 It is a two-story building with modern design.\u00a0 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\u2019t see any signs about not parking in the campus parking lot.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
The first floor is dedicated to the public collections, including a children\u2019s and youth area.\u00a0 It also has a few meeting rooms and a computer area.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It is a very spacious library.\u00a0 There are many tables and chairs for patrons to use as well as comfy chairs to sit in.\u00a0 It has a modern look and seemed clean and welcoming.\u00a0 There is ample natural light from the big windows of the second floor as well as fluorescent lighting.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if it is because of COVID, but many tables didn\u2019t have chairs with them.\u00a0 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! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I went on a Saturday morning, so not many people were in the library.\u00a0 The several people that I saw were either in a study room or working at a table.\u00a0 Most everyone that was there had backpacks, so I assumed they were students.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t feel like I was unwelcomed on the second floor just because I wasn\u2019t a student at TCC.\u00a0 I was able to walk around and observe without any trouble.\u00a0 The librarians\/circulation desk staff that I saw included two white males, four African-American women, and one white female.\u00a0 Several staff members were sitting at the circulation desks (both downstairs and upstairs) but I did see a staff member shelving some books.\u00a0 I was greeted by the white female when I first walked in the library (you had to sign in and sanitize your hands).\u00a0 She had a bun for her hairstyle!\u00a0 It made me chuckle at the stereotype about white women and their bun-wearing hair (Rubin & Rubin, 2020, p. 315).\u00a0 But she was very nice and didn\u2019t shush me. J She was welcoming and wanted to know if I had ever been to the JUL before.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 One didn\u2019t need a TCC card to check out books.\u00a0 Having a public library card was all you needed for both the academic section and public section of the library.<\/p>\n 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).\u00a0 I thought it was unique to have two types of classifications in one library.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 According to Rubin & Rubin (2020), it\u2019s a standard for academic libraries to use the LOC because it accommodates modern subjects (p. 340).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I\u2019m thankful for the extra help with the LOC classifications because it is something I also am not too familiar with.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 There was also a section of law books of municipal laws of Virginia Beach.<\/p>\n I noticed a little display with materials for English as a Second Language (ESL).\u00a0 I thought this was a unique and welcoming way to help those wanting to learn the English language.\u00a0 It was a display that had different books at different levels of reading difficulties for people to check out.\u00a0 There was also audio material to check out on that display as well.<\/p>\n Overall, I was very impressed by the overall design of the library and the materials in the library.\u00a0 It would be an excellent environment to do both research in and to be able to study in.\u00a0 If you get the chance to be in VB, I would recommend you checking out this unique collaboration between a public and academic library!<\/p>\n Reference<\/p>\n Rubin, R. E., & Rubin, R. G. (2020). Foundations of library and information sciences<\/em> (5th<\/sup> ed.).<\/p>\n ALA Neal-Schuman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today\u2019s library visit brought me to the Joint-Use Library (JUL) in Virginia Beach, VA. https:\/\/libguides.tcc.edu\/JUL This library is a partnership between Tidewater Community College (TCC) and the City of Virginia Beach.\u00a0 Both TCC students and residents of Virginia Beach (VB) can benefit from this library.\u00a0 The website gives links to the VB public library website… <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/sites.wp.odu.edu\/mlis-lprok001\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27852\/2022\/01\/B5D3F90C-CF9E-4C00-8D47-AC98EC821EB7-225x300.jpeg\")
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