{"id":96,"date":"2012-04-09T14:47:17","date_gmt":"2012-04-09T18:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/?p=96"},"modified":"2012-10-20T11:57:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-20T15:57:11","slug":"silence-is-golden-a-study-of-the-miller-library-basement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/2012\/04\/09\/silence-is-golden-a-study-of-the-miller-library-basement\/","title":{"rendered":"Silence is Golden: A Study of the Miller Library Basement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The basement of Miller Library is seemingly quiet. Anyone who walks by can take one look at the scene and gather that students are working productively and independently, exhibiting proper library behavior. However, those who choose to immerse themselves in the culture of the Miller basement know that this perceived silence is actually adorned with whispers, laughs and the occasional headphone slip that results in students mistakenly playing their music out loud.
\nFour thirty is a distinctively relaxed time in Miller Library basement. There are students scattered around working independently and quietly. Although the work environment is calm\u2014the stress of a looming tomorrow has not yet set in\u2014there is very little conversation between friends who are sharing tables. Many of the tables and cubicles are covered with notebooks and post-it notes, but the chairs at their desks are empty. The fact that tables are claimed and then abandoned, similarly to the way one saves chairs at the beach on vacation, reflects the steadfast nature of basement studiers.<\/p>\n

While the majority of the students sitting alone are working productively, those seated at tables seem to be handicapped by distraction. Heads pop up every time someone new comes down to the basement, as students check to see if the new arrival is someone with whom they can converse.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For basement studiers, it is crucial to understand and achieve the unspoken balance between pure concentration and limited social interaction. While this study culture is generous in allowing participants the chance to engage with one another, it is not all-giving in this manner. Each studier must take responsibility for his or her conversations, and cannot use his or her time in the basement as purely a social experience.<\/p>\n

Those who have chosen to make the Miller Library basement their study home\u2014or in off-campus resident Whitney Trook\u2019s case, her home away from home\u2014know the proper etiquette of the space. However, for those who have chosen to study elsewhere, the basement seems to be a confusing and unappealing space. As main floor studier Meghan Kelly passionately stated, \u201cThat [the basement] is not my scene. I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s a weird combination. It\u2019s not quiet enough to really focus but you\u2019re not really allowed to talk.\u201d Kelly, who enjoys the \u201cseen and be seen scene\u201d that the main floor offers, has recently made the move from a more quiet location to the most public one after getting into law school. The library has become a \u201cfun\u201d experience, as opposed to a more serious one that basement and upper level studiers appreciate. Lindsay Dale \u201912 on the other hand, cannot bear the thought of having to study amidst noise: \u201cNo, I\u2019ve never studied in the basement. There\u2019s too much noise down there. I think it\u2019s supposed to be a quiet floor, but the constant whispering is too distracting. I need the complete silence that the second or third floor provides.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The basement of Miller Library is seemingly quiet. Anyone who walks by can take one look at the scene and gather that students are working productively and independently, exhibiting proper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2553,"featured_media":195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77338,596,77344,77342,77337],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2553"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/built-environment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}