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"You’ve Got the Library"


One man in the reading room was about to kill himself with a pistol. So a librarian came up. She said:
“Please use a silencer, sir. You might disturb other readers.”

This clever piece is not a web cartoon but is one of the wall postings at the ‘2008 Seoul National University Central Library Exhibition’, now hosted at the Central Library passageway. The solemn and sedate corridor is now decorated with witty, cheerful postings, adding a touch of spring to the campus. A wide arrange of tasteful postings regarding books and the library are on display, making the busy students stop by.

“Uh-oh, you get punished this severely for overdue books? I better pay attention to my overdue notices now on…,” said a student who was taking a look at the foreign overdue policies. It said you can actually get treated as a criminal case in case of severe overdue.

 

What attracted students’ attention the most, was the poll and the free board. Interestingly, reading rooms got the most votes by far when asked where the most comfortable area in the library is. The Computer Lab set with up-to-date facilities, on the other hand, only got a few advocates. “Having better facilities does not necessarily mean more comfort, you know,” said Tae-Jin Choi(College of Agriculture and Life Science) who likes to study in ‘Reading Room 1’ which has the nickname of ‘aquarium’. “Although the facility itself is mediocre, it actually feels comfy once you get used to it.” This approach seems to hold some truth in it, because classic but not very modern Book Stacks Room and the Periodicals Room were the runners-up.

 

You can check out what your role model likes to read on the ‘Who Reads What’ corner. Bill Gates said he enjoyed The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins and Chul-Soo Ahn picked out the Far Countries and Close Countries by Won Bok Lee as one of his favorites. There are also lists of favorite books of SNU and Harvard students, which are fun to compare. The ‘human-skin book’ which was revealed at the SNU’s 60th Anniversary Celebration is again on display.

 

To make the library a place where people truly communicate, is what the Chief Librarian Myung Jin Park is hoping to achieve through this exhibition. The exhibition will continue until 23rd of May.


May 14, 2008
Written by Naeun Choi