Library Observations (5) Wednesday 6:00 - 7:00

In the library, looking around, again I see many people going about their business whether it be studying, lounging around with friends, or reading either a magazine, book, or some other form of printed material. As I watch these people on my last day here observing, I again notice that there tends to be more women than men in this library. Upon seeing this, I decided to take a survey for 40 minutes and see how many men entered the library as opposed to women. All I really did is kept a tally mark in the corner of my notebook. While I was looking at this, I tallied 39 men and 53 women. That is quite a few more women than men that walked into the library during this very short amount of time. To be honest, I really didn't expect to see that many people walk through those doors and it really took me by surprise. There seems to be a lot more women than men and this is something that I plan on researching further in the upcoming future.

Going even further, I tried as best as I could to observe what type of research materials each gender was using and if there was really any difference. As far as I could see, there really wasn't a major difference between the genders in what type of research materials they used. No one really caught my eye this time around and sitting in that same comfy chair, this was probably the most mellow feeling that I have every had a the library. You could still hear the clicking of keyboards, and sighs of frustrated students, and the wrinkles of pages being turned, but overall, this was a very low key day and nothing much really happened. In my opinion, a fantastic way to end my observations.

Library Observation (4) Wednseday 6:00 - 7:00

Sitting in the library, I decided that I would take a short walk around this time when I was observing. First, I started by staying in the middle area by the information desk. I sat down in one of the comfy chairs and saw a man that seemed to be really angry at something. As I continued to observe him, I noticed that he was wearing a Hollister shirt and a baseball cap with the tigers emblem on it. Waiting, I eventually found that he was not prepared for his midterm and felt like he didn't have enough time left to be able to study for it properly. Eventually, he just stood up and left, so I decided to do the same. Next, I moved over to the computer area and sat down in a computer desk. I decided that I was going to observe the sounds that I heard right now more than what I saw. This is what I heard:

• the clicking of keyboards
• papers printing out of several printers
• one girl talking on her cell phone
• a guy speaking with his friends
• the soft hum of the computers that were on around me
• the crinkle of coats as people entered and left leaving their coats on and off.

Looking around now, I saw exactly what I heard. Many people coming and going bundled up because of the cold and everyone had something to do.

Library Observation (3) Wednesday 6:00 - 7:00

In accordance with the writing assignment that we have to do for this coming Monday, I decided that it would be most beneficial to my time to write about the person that I ended up observing. At first, I started to observe a woman that walked in right about the time that I did, but she ended up leaving about two minutes after she arrived. This forced me to choose another subject for my observations. Looking around, I saw many good candidates for my purpose, but one in particular caught my eye. It was a woman, she was about my height, so I would say 5 feet 8 inches tall, and she was slightly overweight. Not drastically, but noticeably. She seemed to be a little self conscience of her appearance because she worn quite a bit of makeup and became tense every time a "cute" boy seemed to walk by. Just looking at this, I could make the assumption that she was a freshman at Eastern because of her high school-like attitude towards what seemed to be important to her. Regardless of her appearance, she wore tight clothing. A pink shirt was covered up by a green coat that looked really thick. Below that, she worn a pair of jeans with flowers embroidered on the side and the back pockets. She was also wearing large, fuzzy boots, most likely because of not only the cold, wet weather, but also to make a fashion statement. She at first started looking at all of the choices of computers and went to a MAC computer and sat down there. She looked like she was doing work for quite some time because she was intensely focused on whatever was on her screen. After a while, she either finished her work, or just got bored because she started to look around at other people and was laughing at something funny on her computer. She was there for about an hour and 15 minutes total. About 45 minutes into my observations, her cell phone rang and she answered it. She seemed to be upset at whoever was on the other end of the phone because she hung up quite quickly after a short conversation and then sat in her chair with a disgusted look on her face. Soon after, she got up and picked up a magazine over close to the information desk and started to read. It looked like she did this because she needed to calm down and she knew it. After that she read until she left. Picking up her backpack, she left in a better mood than the phone conversation made her in.

Overall, she was the most interesting character to catch my eye and her events were well worth the watching. Hopefully, my assumptions were valid and were very helpful in my research for this project.

Library Observation (2) Wednesday 6:00 - 7:00

Looking back at my previous observation, I realized that I completely forgot to include my surrounding environment in my blog. I was both last time and this time sitting in the lounge area, right when you walk in through the main doors by the reception desk. Sitting in a comfy chair, I can see the TV screens to my left right near the front exit. The chair is a little worn in from people sitting in it before, but no one really seems to notice. I see the reception desk both to my right, in the middle of the library, and to my left, near the front door. I can't really see and books or book shelves except for a little sliver of one behind me if I turn around. I see many computers as well as people on them, the computer information desk, with someone sitting at it, and many rooms that I really don't know where they lead to. There aren't many posters, but there are some plants around and several areas where they have tables with information about Eastern Michigan University and the library where I am sitting.

While I was sitting there, I found that my attention was drawn to the student working the computer help desk at the time. He seemed really bored. I could tell because he was staring at the computer with a blank look on his face and every now and then, he he would shake his head a little bit as if to wake himself up. This only lead back to the blank stare along with his head resting on his hand. Again, I seemed to notice that "business" got busier and busier as the evening progressed. More and more people started to show up whether it be for homework or some other reason. I walked around for about half and hour this time just for a change of scenery. I walked around to some of the bookcases and I really did not see anything different than I had already scene.

This time, I saw about the same amount of men and women. This now brings up the question why has it changed as well as what makes it change like that. Planning for further down the road, I will pick a new location for the next two observations and then revisit both at a different day and time to be able to compare not only two different locations, but the different time and date between the locations.

Library Observation Wednesday 6:00 - 8:00

Sitting on the main floor of the library, people were always walking in and out. Most everyone was either looking for a book or looking to work on a computer. One man walked in who looked about the age of 20 and was there about as long as I was. He was constantly moving around, looking both at a computer and within printed text. He was wearing his coat the entire time and looked like he was in a really big rush. For a while, he had quite a few printing problems (like almost everyone else there) and was noticeably worried. Most likely, he was going to class and didn't really do his homework in time. Right across from me, there was another woman reading through a magazine for a while. She was a little shorter than I was and was wearing jeans and a Hollister shirt. I found it peculiar that she was also watching the man that seemed really nervous. She wasn't observing him as I was, but she still seemed to notice that he was in a rush and kind of chuckled a little bit beneath her breath. She didn't stay long, maybe 20 minutes, but seemed very interested in what she was reading as well.

Looking at everything in a larger scheme, I noticed that the secretaries at the desks were well dressed, mostly women, and when they weren't helping people, seemed like they were very bored. Watching the people that walked in, I saw more women that I did men. I found this quite peculiar and asked myself why. Maybe this will become more clear as I observe further down the road. Also, looking at everyone there, more people seemed to be not be in a rush rather than the ones that were in a rush. Even further, everyone that looked rushed was on a computer and wasn't reading a book. This is most likely because the internet is a very easy access tool and many of the people there seemed to have to print off papers. Overall, people were really quite as well. Some people were listening to music, some people were just sitting down doing nothing.

In the end, I saw many people in the two hours that I was at the library, but most all of them were either doing nothing, or researching in some form or another. Also, as it got later into the evening, more and more people started to show up. I figured that more people were done with classes and needed to do homework for the next few days so they choose the library to use as their study place like many others do.

I would like to plan on going again during the weekend some time to see how the weekend compares to the week days.

Community Ideas

I was thinking of researching:

1. Four-Point in the Alexander Music Building - why - my interest is music and this would be a fantastic place to observe people like myself.

2. Starbucks in the student center - why - a variety of people enter coffee shops and I believe that it would be very interesting to watch.

3. The Halle Library - why - libraries have always fascinated me and this would be a good opportunity to observe the way different people act in a library.

I am leaning towards either the library or the Four-Point. I will want to observe the type of people and how they interact with each other at each of these places.