In February, Troy (Ala.) University Dean of Library Services Christopher Shaffer brought fitness to the libraries when he made available six exercise bikes for student use. The endeavor made national headlines. Here, Shaffer explains his motivations, the bikes’ reception, and plans for the future.
Troy University’s motto is “Educate the mind to think, the heart to feel, and the body to act.” I was thinking of those words as well as the American Library Association’s Libraries Transform campaign when I came across an article on exercise bikes that featured tables for laptops from a company called FitDesk.
The bikes were reasonably priced at $299 each, so I ordered three for our library in Troy and three for our extension campus library in Dothan, Alabama. We placed the Troy library bikes in a large space that had been previously used as the archives processing room. At Dothan, the bikes are in a combination computer room–group study area, but they are being moved to a larger space that is currently being converted from an office into a student space.
We added the hybrid exercise-study equipment to our libraries for a variety of reasons. To begin with, it just seemed like a cool idea. There were deeper motivations, though.
In an era when people tend to think that everything can be found via Google, it is important to find creative ways to bring people back to the library where they can receive help getting the information they truly need. By adding these bikes, people may visit us who otherwise would not have or rarely would have.
There were health reasons as well. Obesity is a severe problem in the United States, and Alabama has one of the highest rates (33.5%) in the nation. The cause is not just our diets but the fact that technology has made us sedentary creatures. Students and faculty tend to spend the bulk of their day in front of a computer. We cannot alter that fact, but we can alter what they do while looking at the monitor.
We also wanted to change how academic libraries are perceived.
I want students to view our libraries as places where they want to be. I like the idea of them coming in, checking out a video for pleasure, and watching it on their computer while they exercise for an hour. If they enjoy being at the library for reasons other than academics, maybe they will be more comfortable visiting the library—and approaching librarians—in the future.
The response from students, faculty, and others has been overwhelmingly positive.
A picture of the bikes posted to our Facebook page, which has about 950 followers, was seen by 7,300 people. Articles followed from a number of outlets, including Huffington Post. As a result, we now have on order three more bikes and six elliptical machines to go under tables that students can use while seated.
Students are using the exercise bikes, but it remains to be seen how popular they will be in the long run—the bikes were made ready for use only in early February. Ultimately, if we can help make the library more popular and comfortable while also offering innovative ways to study that promote good health, then the idea has been a success.
First it became permissible to eat and drink in more and more libraries. Then libraries added loud study group areas in the open (as if sound waves could respect non-physical boundaries). Then arrived daycare centers, again, in the open. Now a precedent is set for adding exercise machines to the library. Seattle has proposed a fee-based private library. I’d gladly pay hundreds, even more, to belong to a library where unobtrusive technology and quiet contemplation are the general rules. I recall being upbraided by an irate Bellevue, WA librarian not too long ago who was speaking with a patron at the top of her voice adjacent to a desk where three others and I were studying, for politely asking her to speak more quietly. Even the guest she was speaking with clearly felt her tone was too loud. I understand more of the public feels libraries should be universally welcoming public spaces where we’re free to act as if we were home in our own living rooms. I’ve read library administrators’ public comments to the effect that the modern library is the new community center, and that old rules of decorum–quiet, respect for others around us reading/studying/concentrating, and a reverence for one of the very few remaining spaces of muted contemplation–are defunct. Thus, the argument goes, the public (or academic) library will regain its pertinence to the community. And I suppose there’s no use in complaining. However, judging from the characteristically reserved counterarguments to the new community-center-library, there’s obviously a market for a premium paid private library that caters to those of us who want a vastly quieter, less technologically intrusive library experience.
libraries are dying and probably should be defunded. wikipedia and audible are all we need now. Plus libraries are gun free zones so there is the terrorist target issue to think about. Islamic terrorisism is getting worse.
Patroy… I’m side-stepping some of your comments–excuse me… A few years ago I’d have been offended that you claim libraries should be defunded. I’m an avid fan of historic libraries, and even in recent years, whenever I visit a new community for more than a day or two, the public library would become my home base. What is killing libraries, at least I believe, is the death of mutual respect among patrons. I’m not old enough for my feelings to possibly be the result of some generational distortion. When we’re all sharing a space, but some (quite a few) of us feel others ought to be obliged to stomach our noise or general disregard for others’ property or safety… then that space is no longer welcoming to many of us. Or how about when a library is far too noisy for studying? So now, if I had a choice of whether or not to contribute taxes to my public library, I’d opt out. All I use the library for today is borrowing books or discs I reserve online–and even then, I try to get into and out of the library as quickly as if I were being forced to visit a loud shopping mall.
I agree with you now. I want to be free to invest the portion of my tax dollars that would normally go to a public library into a private membership reading space where quiet and peace can be reasonably anticipated.