Sunday, October 08, 2006
Radford and Tech: open the ivory tower
Christian Trejbal
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Radford University and Virginia Tech play many roles in the New River Valley: Educators of future workers, cultural generators, economic engines and community partners. There is another role, though, one that appears forgotten by too many who see nothing beyond Hokie football. The schools are public repositories of knowledge, and they open their libraries to all residents of the commonwealth.
I stumbled upon this fact at Tech’s Newman Library. I had gone there to do some research and, while wandering the stacks, found my subconscious leading me to the old stomping grounds of philosophy and mathematics. I browsed past old favorites and picked up a new text on truth about which I had heard good things.
Down at the circulation desk, I had low hopes of finagling free borrowing privileges, but it was worth a shot. A few minutes and a driver’s license later, I walked out of the library with books checked out for a month — several months with online renewals — no pleading or donation necessary.
A call to Radford University confirmed that its library has the same policy.
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“We provide a service that is a complement to what’s going on in public libraries,” explained Ericka Patillo, coordinator of public services at Radford’s library. “The general public might have some specific technical needs that our collection might better serve.” Officials at neither library were aware of an explicit state requirement that they open their collections to the public, but they see it as implied.
“As a state-supported institution and land grant university, we are mandated to serve the citizens of Virginia,” said Donald Kenney, associate dean of libraries at Tech.
He listed Tech’s specialized collections in genealogy and law as particularly popular with members of the public.
Virginia taxpayers pay for at least part of the libraries’ budgets, which run to about $12 million annually at Tech and $3.4 million at Radford, so it makes sense for them to have access. If citizens question whether their money is well spent, they can see for themselves that it is. And there is more available than just books on genealogy and law. Tech’s collections contain 2.2 million volumes. Radford University has a quarter million of its own. Plus there are rows and rows of journals, sound recordings, videos and periodicals.
Paula Alston, director of Montgomery-Floyd Regional Library, welcomes the access. Her libraries provide popular materials like the latest novels, DVDs and music. If patrons seek something more technical, library staff directs them to the campuses.
That citizens can walk away with a library card is even more special here, because some state universities put up hurdles. Old Dominion University, for example, requires citizens unaffiliated with the school to pay $35 per year for borrowing privileges, and the College of William and Mary hits them up for $50.
Despite everything the Tech and Radford libraries offer, the public seems unaware or indifferent. Radford University has only 1,100 outstanding public patron cards. Tech has only 1,800. Even if there are no overlaps, 2,900 people is a sliver of the New River Valley’s population. Surely more people still thirst to learn.
Radford, at least, is working to spread the word. The library is developing a marketing plan and investigating whether to join the New River Public Libraries Cooperative, which allows patrons to check out books from Montgomery-Floyd, Pulaski, Bedford, Pearisburg and Radford city libraries, all with one little, unfortunately colored, purple NRPL Coop card.
Unfortunate only because I cringe at the memory of purple nurples inflicted on the grade school yard.
Classics of literature. Texts on philosophy, psychology, history, the sciences, economics, engineering and the entire panoply of human knowledge. Only a mind devoid of curiosity could find nothing in the Radford University and Tech stacks.
All adults, I hope, had at least a passing interest in some subject back in school. The New River Valley’s university libraries provide a chance to explore it once again without homework and tests.
Christian Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
