Library Stuff

 

   

   The images above were captured on Sunday, Sept. 19, 2021.  They seem to me to present conflicting messages. The staff in the libraries at Western University from which these were taken, seem to be eager to see the students return. On the other hand, all libraries but one are closed. Admittedly, we are currently in the midst of a pandemic and many of the resources once supplied in the libraries are now available from the comfort of your barcalounger. Still, one can argue that if you are a student attending a university, you might expect the buildings to be open and services provided most of the time. 

   There used to be more libraries on that campus and there were even others in various departments. Now there are just a few. The Archives, Data/GIS and Map Collection are in the Weldon Library, which is closed. Taylor is the Science Library (there used to be one for Engineering) and one must assume that the aspiring scientists, doctors and dentists are more demanding than the budding business students and lawyers. The Education Library is no more. It has been turned into an Indigenous Centre, a fact about which there is no argument. Oddly and ironically enough, there are three additional libraries at the affiliated colleges, which are religiously-based, and they were all open on that Sunday.

  To be fair, the flagship Weldon Library which serves the humanities and the social sciences is closed for renovation. More books are being removed to create room for staff and students. It will be largely a space for "learning activities" and mostly devoid of books. Once it re-opens, one hopes it will be open most of the time. Librarians will no longer be needed and have to worry about working in the evenings and on weekends. The Commissionaires can keep order and Custodians can clean up.

Indigenous Learning Space (the former Education Library)

Western’s Indigenous Learning Space (ILS) is located adjacent to the Faculty of Education at 1137 Western Road. The ILS is currently under renovation and will open in 2020-21. The ILS will act as a home-place for Indigenous learning initiatives at Western, and a touchstone for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples to gather and learn together, building relationships in the spirit of reconciliation, decolonization and Indigenization.